Infinity Fragment
by ReyMey
Summary: Absolutely no Deus ex Machina. Sword Art Online didn't end when Kayaba perished. They are still stuck in the godforsaken game, without much of a choice than fighting on for their very lives and beloved ones. Strea and Philia will join the adventure and together they will have to withstand 'complicated' events. Be it monsters or the girls, Kirito always gets dragged in.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Kirito's opponent was someone who had mercilessly killed over four thousand people. Could a normal human being do such a thing? The deaths of four thousand, the resentment of four thousand, he could withstand such a pressure and still remain perfectly calm, he was no human, he was a monster.

" _Aaaaaaah!"_

He screamed to eliminate the small fragment of fear that had appeared in the back of his mind. He accelerated his movements further and rained down countless blows upon him per second. But Kayaba's expression showed no change. He blocked all his attacks with his cross shield and longsword at speeds the naked eye couldn't even see.

' _Is he even trying !?'_

Nervousness replaced Kirito's anger. Was it possible that Kayaba only stayed on the defensive because he could actually counterattack whenever he wanted and was confident that he could survive even a direct hit from him? Was it even possible to kill the Game Master, the god of this world ?

The suspicion overtook his mind. Heathcliff had never even needed the overassistance from the beginning.

"Damnit...!"

' _Then, how about this ?!'_

He changed his attack pattern and activated « _The Eclipse_ », the highest art of dual wielding. Like the tips of an enveloping corona, his swords sent twenty-seven consecutive attacks towards Kayaba.

But Kayaba had been waiting for him to use a combo skill designated by the system. His face revealed an expression for the first time since the start of the duel. It was completely opposite to the one he had shown last time.. - it was the triumphant smile of someone certain of his victory.

He realized his mistake as soon as he launched the opening attacks of the combo. In these final moments, he had relied on the system instead of himself. But it was already impossible for him to stop the skill, and once the attacks finish he would be subjected to a short delay. Furthermore, Kayaba saw through all his blows, from the start of the combo all the way to the last attack.

As he watched Kayaba swing his shield at extreme speeds, repelling his swords with knowledge of exactly where each blow would land, Kirito muttered in his mind with growing regret.

'Sorry…..., I messed it up, Asuna'

The twenty-seventh attack struck the middle of the shield, sending out a shower of sparks. Then, with the shrill scream of metal, the sword in his left hand shattered.

"Well, this is goodbye, Kirito-kun."

Kayaba raised his sword and pointed it at his abdomen section as he stood stunned. A deep red shine glinted off the blade. The blood-red sword was then approaching him at an incredible speed—

He gasped for air as the pain flushed through his body. The sword stuck in his stomach, forcing it's way deeper and deeper into his flesh and organs until the tip hit the inner wall of his back.

"This was more than a satisfying fight, thank you for your association." said the blurry red silhouette in front of him with a clear undertone of enjoyment. The world seemed to lose colour turning black and white. The long sword in his hand now fully pierced through Kirito's body. He responded to it with several coughs of blood.

' _Is this my end,...is this_ _ **the**_ _end ?!'_

No, he couldn't let it end here. How many others would have to sacrifice their lives if they had to proceed at this rate. The numbers increased immensely since around floor 50, because the bosses became much stronger with even greater gaps between each. The number of deaths was reaching an intolerable amount. They were doomed to die in this simulation if they would continue like they already do. This was the reason why he accepted the duel in the first place. He wanted to help everyone in this godforsaken game.

'But in the end, I did nothing ….'

This thought gnawed at his principles. He wouldn't accept this fate, no matter what. He had to win this battle, if not he would be a shame. Gathering all the force and energy he had left in his body, he tightened his grip on the sword which was still in his hand, dangling towards the ground, and went for a stab.

It worked! He had successfully used the situation and caught him off guard. Heathcliff widened his eyes, but before he could react Kirito shot his Elucidator right through him with all the might he could ever muster. A small smile of accomplishment formed his lips when he heard the sword ripping the flesh of his.

Tense silence filled the air as they waited for each other to bleed out first. Glancing at the left top corner of his Head-Up-Display (HUD), he saw his own Health gauge sinking with a rapid pace. He shrugged slightly at the sight. He could hear voices around him, however he couldn't recognize or understand anything. They seemed so near, but still so far away.

"You ain't fall that easily, hm ?" The red figure rasped weekly, his voice surprisingly clear to him.

He couldn't see his expression since his eyes were too tired for that and blurred out every image he received per data, but he was sure that Kayaba was surprised. Even Kirito doubted that he just now beat the game master, well not really beat as he was here on his way dying too, but his opponent's bar was a small red sliver by now too. His gaze traveled around the boss room searching for the chestnut haired girl. Unfortunately, his vision was a total mess so he couldn't identify any of the blurry bodies lying.

Kirito's HP bar vanished completely. A red message box appeared within his vision

 _[You are dead]_

It was the command from the god to die. An icy coldness permeated his body. His senses dulled. He felt the innumerable blocks of code unraveling, severing, and destroying his very being. The cold crept up his neck and into his head. Touch, sound, sight, everything became hazy. His entire body was starting to dissolve, becoming shards of polygons, before scattering in all directions.

Kirito felt himself float through some sphere. His body didn't obey him, and his senses were dead, or at least dulled. Mere nothingness enveloped him and let him feel unfamiliarly lonely. He tried to cry out something, but his mouth didn't even budge a little and no tone came out his throat.

' _Is this death?'_

* * *

Klein watched the clash of those two completely different monsters. One combatively, the other one humanly. Emotions stacked over another. His mind was mainly shocked, when he saw Kirito being stabbed. But he would lie if he told anyone that he wasn't relieved when he saw that bastard named Heathcliff get stabbed, though Kirito was on the other side, not in a better state than his enemy.

As Kirito's avatar got destroyed, polygons dashed around above the heads of the lying people, the time seemed to change in slow motion. This sight sent chills down his spine as it made every inch of his skin crawl.

After mere split seconds, the colossal body of the former leader of Knights of the Blood, and the actual game master, shattered into small polygons too. Luckily, this caused the paralyzation effect to wear out. Everyone seemed to struggle moving so shortly after the intense battle. Klein dashed forward to Kirito's death place.

In the corner of his eyes, he saw Asuna weeping desperately. She seemed to be unable to move due the shock. He wasn't sad, rather he was happy.

Don't get him wrong, he has a good reason to be happy. During the fight, he feared that Kirito could get killed and Heathcliff would be able to escape while he were paralyzed so he couldn't aid him. He opened the menu and scrolled through his inventory swiftly, not to exceed ten seconds in any way. Finally, he found the small item he searched for and put it on the ground where Kirito's body has been last.

'Please, don't let this be a joke!' Klein prayed silently.

The crystal was given to him by no less a person than Kirito. It was the _Divine Stone of Returning Soul_. He could clearly recall the moment when he saw Kirito looking sadly at him and tossing the crystal over to him in the snowy forest.

The crystal's tip emitted a dazzling light, causing him to cover his eyes if he didn't want to get blinded. Shimmering blue particles appeared from all over the room and got slowly attracted above head. These small particles merged with each other, growing in size and luminosity. The shower of small fragments by now, descended slowly to the ground, molding into a shape of a person. Although the harsh light damaged his eyes for sure, he couldn't help but stare at the mesmerizing event in front of his eyes.

The light died out gradually, and soon the all too familiar dimness returned into the room. Klein felt various people curiously peeking over his shoulder. Before the light totally vanished, harsh light flashed from the crystal, forcing everyone to squint their eyes. When it settled down, he could hear loud gasps right next to his ear. He opened up his eyes, only to widen them right after.

A slim, black silhouette lay there where he put the crystal before, which has been burst into thousands of polygons, but he didn't really pay much attention to that. His eyes kind of locked on the baby-like face of the strongest swordsman in whole Aincrad. He respected him, and looked up to him even if he were the older one between us.

Kirito slowly opened his eyes and blinked surprised. Before Klein could react, a lightning flash passed by him and halted on the other side of the lifeless figure.

* * *

"Asuna !" Agil shouted to the frozen girl.

But his voice didn't even register in her mind. It felt as if all her emotions were being burnt out, as if she was falling into a bottomless abyss engulfed by despair. There was no reason for her to do anything anymore. Whether it was fighting in this world, returning to the original world, or even continuing to live on, all of them had lost their meaning when Kirito couldn't be at her side.

Strong hands shook her out of her thoughts. She looked with wetted eyes at Agil, but he just responded with a big delighted smile.

"Why are you crying? Kirito is right there." Agil chuckled softly with a grin spread across his face.

"Wha-.." Asuna didn't understand. She was sure that she saw Kirito die, so how ? Well, she didn't care how. As soon as she found the black haired boy lying in the middle of the sitting crowd, she rushed as fast to his side as the system allowed.

"Kirito-kun !" She cried out his name desperately, as if it were a magical word to bring his consciousness back. She took the head of the boy in a tight embrace.

"Kirito-kun, you won't leave me, right? ...you promised." She whispered weakly into his ear.

The boy furrowed his eyebrows and squinted his eyes, making the impression that he was in pain. Asuna tightened her embrace even more.

"You….making….me...suffo...cate." Kirito brushed her cheek as he croaked out weakly.

"Kirito-kun !" Asuna was kneeling on the ground, her face right before his eyes. Her eyebrows were tightened, and she was biting her lip. Tears of desperation were now replaced by tears of joy and dripped from her nose on his cheeks.

As he sat up, pain spiked through his head and caused his face to distort.

"You idiot !"

She shouted and then jumped into his arms and hugged him. It shocked him enough to make him forget his pain for a moment. He could only blink in surprise and accept her hug. After a while, she broke apart and poured a small bottle into his mouth. The liquid which flowed in was a high-quality potion that tasted like a combination of lemon juice and green tea. It should fully heal his HP within five minutes, but his weariness was going to last a while longer. He had strong feeling of Dejá Vú.

Asuna checked to confirm that he had drunk all of it. Then, as her face began to scrunch up, she put her forehead on the crook at his neck and hid it from him. Kirito raised his head at the echoing sound of footsteps and saw Klein approach. He seemed a little apologetic for disturbing them, and as he wanted to start speaking, Kirito interrupted him.

"Why am I still alive? I clearly saw the death message." He asked in a cold voice. He felt Asuna twitch a little in his arms but ignored it since it seemed to be lesser in importance.

"You remember last Christmas ?" Klein asked with a growing smile on his face, Kirito tried to recall that event, but failed horribly.

"I don't, sorry. Maybe it's cause my head is still pulsing like crazy."

"The revival item…" he jogged Kirito's memory.

"aaaaahhh" He grasped in enlightenment, then he bowed slightly to show his gratitude.

"Very thank you !"

"No, actually we are the ones to thank you." He suddenly noticed that aside from Asuna, everyone in the room was looking at him. A murmur of agreement went through the room. Then they all rowed in front of him and bowed respecting deeply.

"It looks like this is the flow for the ending theme, right ?" Klein announced loudly. He smiled happily and blissfully, but sad too. The remembrance resurfaced in his inner eye. From the City of Beginnings till now, he had done so much in this world. The he noticed the still cuddling couple.

"As soon as I am out I am gonna find a girlfriend and make her happy !" Klein said out of the sudden with a strong voice and raised his fist while looking towards them.

Kirito responded with a sheepish smile and rubbed the back of his head. "Sure". A small blush tinted their cheeks slightly red. Then Klein seemed to pause out for a moment before he narrowed his eyes looking to nothing in particular.

"By the way Kirito..."

"Hm?"

"When will we leave ?" Kirito left speechless for a while.

"He told us that when we defeat him he will release us." He said before realizing how dumb it sounded. Why did he trust that man? Was it cause it was the only hope? Who would think that he would let them run so easily anyway. 'No, Kayaba wouldn't lie' told him a gut feeling

"What now ?" A young male asked in the crowd, and added. "We have beaten the game master, so why isn't this game finished yet ?" The situation worsened at his words, and made the people wonder and babble around, causing uncontrollable fussing.

Suddenly, the air zapped loudly and the system displayed the wrong colours for a few moments. Everyone was shocked. The Cardinal's system seemed to freak out, but it settled down quickly. Asuna jumped up and pressed to Kirito's side.

" _WHAT WAS THAT_!" The room filled up with panic, everyone stampeding blindly. The emotions of each person was written obviously on their faces. _Dread ._ After some time, the leader of the guild Divine Dragon Alliance shot up and yelled loudly.

" _SILENCE!_ " His voice echoed, bouncing off from the walls and silencing every single person. He huffed annoyed and glared at all of them at once with a scornful look in his eye. Stepping aside, he let Kirito be the center of attention as he waved his hand in his direction. The boy nervuosly coughed in his fist to clear his throat. Frankily, he sucked at talking to bigger groups of people.

"We should move with the flow for now." Kirito proposed, much to their shocks. "It's a waste of time to wait here for something to happen." Yet again he could hear many murmures around him but he didn't pay any attention to that. His eyes were focused on the blue dim wall behind the crowd, staring down the nothingness.

"So we still have to fight ?!" An angered person in the crowd growled.

"What else ?" Kirito asked surprisingly cold, causing the the person to shut.

"So it isn't finished yet ?" Asuna talked waveringly into his neck, and lifted her head up to meet his onyx caring eyes. Kirito placed his fingers under her chin and raised her head even more, nearing her head to his one. Their lips connected, and they melted into the kiss with all the passion and fervor.

Kirito wanted to never let go and stay like that forever, but his lungs screamed for air after a very long kiss. He looked lovingly into her eyes as he gently caressed her cheek and gingerly wiped off a small tear in the corner of her eye. Displaying a hearty smile, he answered her.

"Yeah, we will have to fight on."

* * *

 **A/N: Yo! I hope you liked this story. Don't think this is everything. I just tried to get rid of this really disturbing Deus ex Machina moment from the light novel/anime. Naturally I had to write a Prologue, which covers this whole chapter.**

 **Now there are two routes this story can take:**

 **If I see that you like the story, then I am gonna continue it (I already set out some vague plans which really are good !) This will happen if we exceed a certain amount of reviews and follows which I won't tell you ! MWaahahahahah.**

 **Or this story is getting no attention and I let it be a OneShot. An uncomplete OneShot ^^**

 **It's up to you !**

 **Bye !**

Edit: I will continue this story ;) I am hoping you stay just as awesome as here for the rest of the chapters too.


	2. The Start of an Adventure

Chapter 1: The Start of an Adventure

He stood there on a cliff, looking on the horizon of smaragd meadows beneath his feet, stretching out in front of him, and glinting in the brazen orange sunset light. A cold breeze caressed his worn cheek, indicating the coldness of the upcoming night. A small path led to the town which was centered between all these meadows. He watched the town lit up the street lights as dimness fell upon the small city and revealed many shiny stars with a crescent on the clear sky.

He put his head back and watched the mesmerizing glowing of the stars. It looked so realistic, he couldn't deny that. Sometimes, he forgot about being in a game since the graphics were really incredible. This sight, the scent of wonderful smelling blossoms, the warmness in his coat, the feeling of exhaustion. Everything was so real.

Shifting his mind to the present, he found himself in the complete darkness. It has been one hour since the god of this world fell. His pupils widened, hence to be able to identify more in the dark. Behind him, a voice yelled loudly.

"Kirito-kun~, come here !" The voice-owner was none other than his girlfriend, Asuna.

"Sure" He responded less motivated. Walking to the slim figure in white armor, which simplified to find her in the dark, he recognized three more frames standing there. Klein, Agil and Silica.

"Hey, hero-sama" Asuna greeted jokingly, only to see his reaction. She knew that he wasn't good in handling praises but to her surprise, Kirito just smiled widely.

"I think I deserve this title" He chuckled amusedly before a quick glare silenced him.

"Never mind"

"Kirito, it's really bad." started Agil with a super stern face "We found out that all items are unaccesible beside the ones having equipped."

Chills got sent down his spine as he heard that and he swiftly pinched his thumb and index finger and traced downwards through the air. Pressing some buttons on his window, he let his jaw drop.

"You're right, shit!" All item names were greyed out, and couldn't be used.

'At least, I have my battle gear already equipped.' Kirito let out a long sigh of relief. It was just greyed out but not corrupted fortunately. So he still had this crazy mini chance bringin back Yui. But then he saw the still furrowed look on Agil's face.

"That's not all."

"What do you mean ?"

"We also found out that the teleport gates don't allow us to teleport to lower floors anymore."

"Wha-"

Heck, this was bad! Now they couldn't use the shops and markets on lower floors. But what was more important to him was the wonderful log house on floor 22 he and Asuna had bought just weeks ago. He felt slight sadness rush over him. A glimpse at Asuna who was smiling soothingly at him, told him that she knew it already.

Well, he left them to explore this area on his own but in the end he only watched the beautiful sceneries of this floor in awe. They sure have talked about this earlier, before calling him.

"Agil, are you alright with that, because you know,.. your shop." Kirito asked awkwardly. Agil however had a strong shine in his eyes.

"Yeah, no problem for me." But then he added with a lower voice "but it hit Lizbeth quite hardly"

Right, Lizbeth used backpacks and things like that to store the weapons she forged. Further, blacksmiths' one of the most difficult jobs was gathering the needed materials. However all that was unusable by now. But why ?

Kayaba's death caused all of this, didn't it ? So there had to be something wrong with the Cardinal System. But Kayaba told them that he was the actual last boss so the game must be cleared by now. What was it waiting for ?

"...-ito-kun, Kirito-kun ?" Asuna waved her hand in front of his eyes causing the boy to get dragged out of the train of thoughts. He threw a short glance to the night sky, reminding him how exhausted and tired he actually was.

"Let's go already."

They walked through the valley between smaragd hills to the left and right. The slim dirt way ended in front of the city and flowed over into stony soil, covering the whole ground of this small city.

"See you guys tomorrow"

"Bye"

Now, Asuna and Kirito were the only ones left to find an inn. It wasn't like they weren't satisfied with the ones before, but rather that they wanted to be in the same inn without anyone knowing.

Walking hand in hand with intertwined fingers, they decided to go into the next inn they see as Kirito stumbled a few times due the growing tiredness. Kirito discovered one pretty far away from the other ones and walked inside.

A small light bulb brightened the room in an orange tone. The walls and floor were made of wood. In the small entry room was a small counter without a person staffing it. On the left side of the room was a staircase leading upstairs to the rooms he supposed. Kirito approached the counter and chimed a bell placed there. After a few moments, footstep sounds from upstairs could be heard.

"Sorry" A woman with the age of around 25 apologized as she walked, from the stairs behind to the counter. She wore an elegant purple shirt with white traces at the edges, and with a fitting short skirt reaching merely her knees.

"We would like to have a room for two persons." said Kirito.

"One or two beds ?" The woman asked, grinning a little. Asuna's cheeks assumed a dark colour of red. He threw a glimpse back at Asuna and answered with a joyous smirk.

"One bed is enough"

* * *

"I can't believe you !" Asuna scolded.

"You should have taken two beds. We could have secretly slept in the same one. But now, what will you do if somebody finds it out ?"

"Nobody will find out." assured Kirito "And even if they did, they should know that we are a married couple !"

"You know Lizbeth's and Klein's behaviour too, they won't let this one slip that easily." Asuna pouted.

"They won't find out either. Let's go to bed already."

Her glare was replaced by fluster as she hummed a quick "yes" and lay down on the bed. Since they had no items anymore beside the ones they wore, they had to sleep in armor. Fortunately, both of them had bearable equipment for sleep.

Kirito slid under the bed cover beside Asuna and extinguished the small flame of an oil camp on the nightstand, allowing the night to break in this room. Kirito would have made sure to let this moment with his beloved last longer but the immense fatigue from before overcame him.

He briefly pecked her forehead and took her into a half embrace, placing his head on hers, and let himself fall asleep. She put her head on the crook of his neck and inhaled his warm and familiar scent, closing her eyes she allowed the system to take her consciousness too.

With blissful smiles formed on their lips, they accompanied each other in their bed and dreams.

...

The morning sun brightened up the room. The light pierced through cracks of the curtain dividing the shine into individual sunrays and hitting various spots of the room. As one of them hit the face of the chestnut haired girl, she left the world of sleep and woke up.

Rubbing the drowsiness away from her eyes with the back of her fist, she let out a low yawn, careful not to wake up the person next to her, and stretched in her lying position. She turned completely to the side to watch her husband sleep.

He had a cute sleeping face, and sometimes he drooled when he was really exhausted the night before, and so was this morning. She giggled silently and put her head on his lifting chest slowly, listening to his calming heartbeat.

When his face scrunched up as a sunray was thrown his way, Asuna raised her body and looked at his shut eyelids, waiting for them to open and reveal the hearty onyx eyes she loved.

Hazel met onyx. Delight sparkled in Kirito's chest when he saw Asuna above him. It was like every other morning but still special enough to engrave it into his very soul.

"Good morning." Asuna wished smiling lovingly.

Kirito mirrored her actions and took her into an embrace, binding his hands around her waist. They lay there in comfortable silence, no words were needed. Inhaling and exhaling each other's scent and warmth was all they needed.

Asuna lifted her body and stared deeply into the opposite eyes. She bit the back of her underlip as she cupped Kirito's face. The world around seemed to fade away, as they melted into a passionate kiss with all the love they could give. Until the ringing of a message notification broke them apart.

"Who is it?" Asuna asked as she threw herself on her side of the bed.

"Hm, lemme see... it's from Masaru(name of DDA leader; meaning-victory). Just a meeting in an hour" Kirito sighed.

For that, they interrupted his perfect morning with Asuna ? Unforgivable ! He rolled his eyes over to Asuna who hadstood up and stretched her arms into the air to get rid of the stiffness in her body.

'I am the luckiest man ever' Kirito smirked at that thought, however she didn't leave it unnoticed.

"What are you looking at ?" She said with a small crawling of a rising blush.

"So..adorable..."

* * *

"Amazing ! They are so delicious, chef Asuna !"

Kirito took another bite of the sandwich in his hands which Asuna made them before leaving. She had to ask the landlady for a place to cook, and fortunately she was kind enough to let her cook in the kitchen of the inn.

"Perfect, hmmmmmmm"

The aroma bombarded his mouth cavity before settling down a bit after few times of chewing. The bit danced on his tongue, and slid down his throat smoothly. Then he inserted the food again, to experience the amazing feeling another time.

"Mmmmmm"

"Stop moaning."

Asuna said with a clear flustered undertone. They were presently walking towards the new base which was opened right after they found out that they weren't able to get back to their old ones. But there was only one headquarters till now so all the guilds had to share it.

The morning sun poured down it's energy, warming up the air itself and inducting the day. Passing by many houses and inns, they finally arrived at the base. It was this town's greatest building. A white castle shimmering the weak sunlight and brushing the lowest clouds.

Kirito knocked on the massive iron doors, Asuna close behind him. The doors opened up, hauling and unleashing disturbing noise. As soon as they stepped inside, the doors closed right behind them.

Inwards was the same as outwards. White was the dominating colour, making Kirito stand out like raven on snow. Fluorescent tubes emitted a clear bright light, reflected by the polished walls and floor. Heck, you could even serve your food on the floor without needing a plate.

They headed to the determined room for the conference. Upon receiving admission to enter, they pushed the doors open.

The room was already filled up, leaving two seats empty. Leaders of guilds and frontliners were seated here, all turning their heads into the direction of the new arrived couple. At first sight, Kirito could detect Klein sitting in on the opposite side.

"Now we can start the meeting."

"As you all know, our raid leader Heathcliff emerged to be the game master himself, and now after he perished, we have the many problems. First of, we need someone to be the main leader." Klein initiated the conference. Kirito felt various glances at him when Kayaba was mentioned but he decided to brush it off.

"What's about Masaru?" A random DDA member suggested of course his leader. Normally, Kirito would say something to refuse someone who is suggesting his leader so openly, but he was the best choice indeed between a handful other players. To everyone's surprise, Masaru raised his hand.

"Actually, I could handle being the main leader, but I had someone else in my mind." He threw a short but intense look at The Black Swordsman.

"Wait what" Kirito shrugged.

"Yeah, you've proven us that you are the strongest swordsman here."

Soon he was the target of sharp attention. A sweat drop formed on his forehead, and he could feel the intensity poking several holes in his body. A fly flew around the room, but compared to the silence, it buzzed annoyingly loud. At last, he mustered the right words to say.

"No sorry, I am incapable of being a leader. I'm not qualified for this job." It reminded him how much he sucked at talking to larger crowds. Disappointed looks met him, but he didn't bother. He looked at Asuna who gave him a supporting nod.

"Well, well, nothing we can do there. Raise your hands, if you are for Masaru" Masaru's proxy said. The majority raised their hands.

"Next topic !"

Boredom pestered Kirito. He had _no_ idea that it was going to be this lame. After a half of the meeting, he felt tired though it was barely noon by now, probably due the crazy boredom. But even his best to stay awake, doesn't sufficient sometimes.

A gentle shake on his shoulder disrupted his slumber. He blinked a few times, before he realized where he actually was. Explanation-expecting looks directed at him, he felt very uneasy.

"Sorry, I just didn't get enough sleep last night" That was a pretty lame excuse, but it did seem to do it's job.

"Kay, since you don't have something against it, I will declare you as the first General" Masaru gave a triumphant smile and shocked the drowsy Kirito.

"When did you decide that ?"

"Just now."

Kirito let out a small sigh of defeat. He couldn't oppose him, since he was the leader, and he had no real excuse to refuse.

Boring talk here, boring talk there, the conference came to an end by afternoon. Kirito was surprised to see the sun still this high in the sky, he was almost sure that it must have been several days in there.

"Waste of time" Kirito huffed as he grabbed Asuna's hand, and walked with her to the next best restaurant.

"At least we have the next full one month for us alone." She brushed his nose like one would do to a child.

"Heh ? Did they mention something like that ?"

"Yeah, while you slept peacefully." She giggled at the dumb face he made, before talking on "We shall prepare us the next month and get everything done. Further, we have to wait for blacksmiths to collect the newest material since after every 25th floor, a new stronger material appears. We will have to use it."

Kirito didn't care why, he was delighted to hear that they finally could take a break from fighting. The mere notion in his mind of the great time, curled the corners of his mouth up. He tightened the grip on her hand in anticipation.

"Let's enjoy it to our fullest !" Asuna turned to her boyfriend and watched those onyx orbs sparkle.

Asuna hummed in affirmation, and pressed closer to his side while walking. Two full months with the boy she loved and was loved back. She squeezed his arm in ecstasy.

"Kirito~, Asuna~ !" Kirito turned around to the source of the yelling. The pink haired girl in her usual blacksmiths clothings waved her hand energetically high above her head while running to them. She came to a halt in front of the couple, panting heavily and supporting her bend down upper body with her hands on her knees. When she seemed to have catched her breath, she lifted her head and gave a pleading smile.

"Could you guys, by any chance help me to find the new material ?" She asked unusual politely.

"Sure !" Asuna exclaimed before Kirito could say anything to her childhood friend. Lizbeth's eyes glittered like the ones of a child. She took out a multiple folded map from her pocket and held it in front of their eyes.

"We will go there..." she unfolded the small piece of paper into a parchment with a map scribbled on it. The corners were torn, and the surface of it worn and dirty. It resembled one of the treasure maps which Kirito had seen in pirate films before. Then she pointed on the X pretty much in the center of the parchment.

"Argo found that in a treasure on this floor. I bought it immediately when I heard about this" Lizbeth said proudly. "And now we just gonna step there and get that badass material!"

"Somehow I have a really bad feeling about this." Kirito muttered.

* * *

 **And here ends chapter 1,**

 **I hope you enjoyed it aaaaand**

 **Sayonara !**


	3. Hollow Area

Chapter 2: Hollow Area

They were currently in the middle of a fight, and the enemy was a troll axe user named «Troll Warlord». It was over two meters tall, surrounded by an eerie green aura, and held a huge axe in it's hands. As the muscular green body of the troll already gave the impression, it's strength stats were really high.

"Hrrrrgrrrr!"

With this strange cry, the troll swung its axe several times leaving a fitting green line of light in its wake. It was a five-hit combo skill.

As Kirito watched anxiously from a few steps back, Asuna stepped left and right, elegantly dodging all the swings. Even if it was a 2-on-1 situation, they couldn't both fight at once when confronted by a fully armed enemy. It wasn't forbidden by the  
system, but when two people were too close together in a fight where swords swung to and fro at speeds faster than the eye could follow, it became more of a hindrance than a help. So when partying, a skill that required high levels of teamwork called «switching» was used.

After it's full swing, the last one of the five hits missed, and the King Troll's posture fell slightly off-balance. Asuna didn't miss this chance and went straight into a counter-attack. The jabs of the silver-white sword landed one after another, all spectacularly hitting their mark, and the skeleton's HP decreased. Each individual blow didn't deliver much damage, but the number of hits was overwhelming.

After getting hit by three short thrusts, the troll's guard went slightly up, and Asuna switched her style to slash twice at its legs. Then, with her blade tip shining blindingly yellow, she sent two strong slashes high and low. It was an eight hit combo. It was the high-level sword skill named «Star Splash». Striking the troll accurately with that thin blade, which was usually ineffective against such enemies, was a show of unbelievable skill.

The strength that had reduced about twenty percent of the troll's HP was also amazing, but Kirito was lost within the elegance of the actual player. This must be what they mean by sword dancing. Asuna shouted at him, who was standing there dumbly, as if she had eyes on the back of her head.

"Kirito-kun, switch!"

"Ah, kay!"

He rushed to raise his sword, and at the same time, Asuna performed a strong stab.

The troll deflected the blow with the handle of the axe's handle held in both of his hands and bright sparks came flying off. But that was already expected.

The enemy was left stunned for a moment after guarding against the strong attack, unable to immediately counter. Of course, Asuna was stunned as well after having her attack blocked, but Kirito was here therefor.

After making sure with the corner of his eye that Asuna had gotten out of range, he dashed fiercely at the enemy with a charging skill.

The «Vertical Square» that he used to hit the enemy all four times reduced a lot of it's HP. The troll reacted slowly due its massive body.

Kirito parried the counterattack and started a major skill to end the battle. He delivered a strong, downward strike to the right, then twisted his wrist and swung back up again, retracing the trajectory he went down and ducked the next attacks.

Every time the sword hit the enemy's body, a flow of red particles came out. The Troll raised the axe high above his head, and slashed diagonally downwards. Kirito went against the AI's expectations and rolled through the gap between his legs.

Then he sent a vertical strike at the swaying troll, and without a pause followed it up with other hits, till the Troll Warlord had no health left and shattered into million of polygons.

"Well played !" Asuna slapped his back where were his sheathed swords were in their scabbards by now, giving off the sound of clattering metal.

"You too, let's go deeper into the dungeon !" He beckoned Lizbeth and Asuna to follow him. Lizbeth carried a lot of materials along which she had mined with her small pickaxe throughout their expedition.

The dungeon itself was quite bright for a dungeon. Each 5 meters on the wall there was a torch lighting up the way for them. Waterdrops penetrated the leaky stone above them and splashed with a chink on the ground at a continuous rate, echoing through the whole cave.

When they headed on for approximately five minutes, they stood in front of a junction with two branches. The system didn't allow them to see what was inside of each tunnel, without going in. Since they had a chunk of experience in this game with a playtime over two and a half years, they knew that they couldn't get out of each tunnel that easily, especially not one on the floor 76.

"I guess, I go with Asuna to the left one, and you to the right one Kirito-kun" Lizbeth said, fear obviously written on her face. Kirito nodded in affirmation and finally they separated their ways.

"Keep safe, Asuna !" He said a last time before he entered the dark tunnel and got out of earshot.

* * *

He walked in the dark cave, searching for something useful. His dampened footsteps on the slippy stone ground echoed with each step he took, bounced off the walls and went to unexplored territory. The sound of dripping waterdrops was almost making him go insane after a while. Fortunately, there were no mobs thus far.

Suddenly, the room started to brighten up. As he searched for the source of the new light, he found himself enveloped in a glaring, blinding yellow light in the form of a corona, closing up to him slowly. Before he could even react, his sight changed entirely.

He tried to focus his eyes on something, but the dimness and heavy fog didn't allow it. He could only barely see the frame of his hand which he held in front of his eyes. The coldness attacked his exposed skin, causing him to pull his collar closer to his neck, without any effect. The ground was a dew layer of grass above a squashy dirt ground.

Then the realization hit him. _'I got teleported away.'_

There were these corridor crystals which allowed one to teleport himself and persons next to him away. There was a method of player killing, which involved these crystals. PKers could sneak behind one and teleport to a place, which one was most likely not to survive. This method was practical, since one wouldn't die by the PKer's hands but the strong mobs'. So could anyone have done that on purpose to get him killed ?

He had to get away from this place, doesn't matter why he was here!

His eyes adjusted very slowly to the surroundings, revealing a jungle. The ground was dark green now, but it would assume a beautiful green tone at daytime. Blossoms rose from the trunks of the trees heavenwards, trying to get as much light as possible daytime, even when the dense leaf canopy would almost absorb every light from the sun.

He traced a line with his left index finger through the air, invoking the player menu of his. Pressing the _inventory_ tab, he picked out a teleportation crystal and readied it in his palm.

"Teleport Floor 76 !"

He waited for the blue light to appear and cover his body, for the sudden change of landscape, for the airy feeling during the "jump", but exactly _nothing_ happened. He shook the crystal vigorously as if it would get it going again.

 _'Whatever, I will just have to find my way back.'_ He tried to calm himself, as a small fragment of panic was formed in the back of his mind.

* * *

 _'Faster, Faster, Faster !'_ The girl spurred her legs to accelerate, and kick the sluggish ground with more force. She had to get rid of that _thing_ chasing after her. Luckily, with her agility she was able to shake it off here in the jungle by walking through this jungle around the trees. Although the hunter had no problems to log all the trees in it's way, she just had to get out of his sight.

She tried memorize the path between trees in front of her to each single step, so she could run while checking her back. A small sigh of relief slipped out of her mouth when she didn't spot the chaser, before it was cut short by a crash. It wasn't a tree,.. it was more like a person.

The figure and she regained their lost balance after a short time. Unsheathing her precious sword, she dashed forward. The blade was a dark silver metal flimmering in the weak moonlight, the dull silver pommel and crossguard made the deep red handle and crystal in the center stand out. The back of the blade was covered with snappy indentations.

'He must be one of them !' She thought and went for several fierceful attacks, only to get dodged and blocked almost instantly.

'What is with this girl ?' He blocked a strong stroke, which repelled the girl's sword immensely and threw her hood back, revealing smooth dandelion blonde hair. Hats, hoods and masks allowed to hide one's cursor so when her hood was "unequipped", a cursor appeared above her head.

"R-red cursor ?"

"Yeah, I killed someone" Although her voice was meant to be cold and emotionless, he could clearly identify an undertone of regret and despair.

The girl swiveled her wrist and let the sword go out of her grasp for a split second before grabbing it backhanded and slashing diagonally. But the other swordsman reacted quickly and striked vertical, connecting his blade with one of the indentations, creating sparkles between them along a metallic scream, and locking swords in the end.

"Who are you ?" The girl asked between her panting, surprised at the strength of her opponent.

"I should be the one asking !"

He glared at her smaragd coloured eyes, still in the swordlock. Suddenly, a gigantic shadow fell from above right next to them. The collision was followed by an ear-deafening bang and heavy tremor. A wall of dirt rose from the spot to the sky.

" _GHHHRHHRAAAAAAAAAA"_

The sound waves pierced a hole through the wall and made the monster visible. He wasn't sure if the appearance or the scream, which almost splitted his eardrums, scared him more. Skeleton skull, centipede build with thousand razor-sharp legs and a frightening tail, a mega blade on it's own.

"Skull Reaper ?!" He murmured terrified.

 _" RUN !"_

* * *

Panting heavily without even enough breath to say a word, they sat on a branch almost at the treetop. Their vision was extremely limited, the only thing to see were leaves. After another few minutes they managed to catch their breaths.

"Why did you help me ?" started the girl.

"Why not ?" He asked with a slight smirk on his lips.

"Cause I almost killed you!"

"Hahaha, I wouldn't even call that a try." He joked amused but was silenced almost immediately by a deadly glare.

"What was that from before ?"

"The boss of floor 75." Then he quickly added as he saw her mouth opening "Don't ask me how."

"..." She let closed her mouth before opening it again.

"Who are you, ...you don't seem to be one of _them_?" She asked.

"One of them ?!" He lifted an eyebrow.

"Ah, never mind." She could tell that his reaction was genuine, so she could feel more at ease. Fortunately for her, Kirito didn't broach the subject again.

"You really don't know who I am ?!" He exclaimed surprised. Almost everybody knew him, if not everyone, she was the first one not to know him since that game-changing fight.

"No" Kirito chuckled at her response. He hated it to be so popular. Showing off wasn't really his thing and being popular meant people want him to take responsibility like his General one, and that meant less free time and more to care about.

"My name is Kirito. And yours ?" He gave her a huge ear to ear smile and held out a hand friendly. Gradually, she took his hand and shook it unwillingly.

"My name is Philia!"

Then Kirito remembered his actual situation in the moment. He left Asuna and the others without a word, he should at least tell them. Opening up the menu, picking Asuna in the friendslist, and writing a short message that she shouldn't worry about him, he pressed "Send". Instead of the normal window, which normally assured him that his message was sent, there was another window.

 _System Error_

 _'Wha-, shit !'_

First, teleportation is impossible, now message sending too. What was this place, where was this place ? This large amount of area should have been cleared right ?! There was no place which was known as uncleared, beside the first day on the new floors. But even floor 76 was fully explored by now. There was something wrong with this place.

"You know what or where this place is ?" Kirito asked straight out. The girl rose her head and met his gaze with her cold smaragd orbs. Kirito seemed to have seen a flash of sadness in her eyes, but didn't bother.

"Yeah, it's called Hollow Area."

As if on clue, an emotionless, clear voice announced from somewhere up there in the sky and echoed through the whole jungle. It was the same voice he heard 2 years before. The same voice he heard instructing his registration in Sword Art Online. It was the system!

 _Access restriction to the Hollow Area has been removed !_

"What is happening ?" Kirito asked after breaking out of his short stupor. This was the first time that he heard the system since a long while.

"I don't know" Suddenly her eyes widened and she let her jaw open and close for a few times before she said "W-Why do you have this symbol on your hand ?"

She pointed at his wrist. Kirito followed her line of sight. A strange small, yellow radiating pattern assaulted his eye, causing him to make the same expression as Philia in confusion. The cross symbol started at the middle of his lower arm reached all the way along his palm to his middle finger. On the wrist, the center of the symbol, was a spiral design, from where the two sidelines of the cross branched off.

"What is this ?!" Kirito jumped up, but calmed himself right after, since they were still on a branch and he really didn't want it to break under pressure. He wasn't in mood for a fight against the Skull Reaper. Why was it here anyways ?

"I think I saw that symbol somewhere around this place." Philia put her finger on her chin, giving the impression of scratching the depths of her memories.

"Whatsoever, we should ignore it for now. The monster still could be near, though I can't hear it anymore." She sighed as she gave in to her oblivion.

"I guess, we should take turns in guarding and sleeping here." Kirito proposed. It was the only right decision. They would just die if they fought a monster with even the half of the strength which Skull Reaper possessed.

"I will sleep first." Philia exclaimed immediately. She beckoned the boy to turn around, and leaned back at the slim tree trunk.

"Good night" Kirito said with a friendly smile, but got no answer. He turned around on the thick branch and savored the scenery. Above head, the moon shine beamed through the leaf canopy at various spots and made innumerable amount of particles visible in the blue-white light.

The cold breeze brushed his exposed skin, and made the seemingly infinite leaves rustle. From somewhere below, the crickets chirped continuously from an uncertain source, which could annoy one after a while.

He pulled the collar of his coat closer to his neck, to lessen the coldness a bit. It's a shame that his items became corrupted for whatever reason, he had a fluffy coat made of giant bearskin but now it was unusable.

As the moon had descended halfway, they changed positions. Kirito's tired and heavy eyelids fell slowly, and he soon drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"Kirito, Kirito wake up!" He shot his eyes open and jumped up to his feet. Dazzling morning sunshine blinded his drowsy eyes and forced them to squint into a slim line. On the edge of the branch was a crouching Philia, eyes narrowed she scanned the ground.

"What is it ?!"

"Something big is near."

Chills went down his spine. He perked up his ears to detect any improper sounds. Around five trees away, many birds shot up from the treetop and tweeted loudly. Then, booming at a fast pace could be heard, growing in volume with each boom. The vibration of the ground got stronger as the thing neared them.

Cracking wood under their feet was the next sound.

"Shit"

Before he could react, he lost the branch under his feet, and was in a freefall very soon. He watched the ground approaching at an incredible pace. The air draught tugged his hair up, and his coat fluttered like crazy. A side glance told him, that the girl wasn't in any different situation. He concentrated on the very next moves he was about to make, on which his and her life depended on.

 _"Air Kick !"_

As the name tells already, he literally kicked the air at his right foot and dashed forward to Philia. This was a pretty nice skill, especially in this situation, but it costed the half of his stamina, which is why he used it next to never. He catched her with his arms, and let the momentum carry them.

When it reached the end, he followed it up with another kick towards another treetrunk. He reached behind his back and unsheathed The Elucidator. Stabbing it deeply into the wood, he was able to stop the fall as he hung on the sword's handle with one hand while the other one held Philia's arm who dangled towards the ground.

The booming got louder again so Kirito pulled the girl up into a bridal carry and activated the next skill with the stamina he had regained during the short rest right now.

 _"Wall Run"_

Usually, this skill was used to walk horizontally along a wall but he had to rush down a tree. A few meters above the ground, he kicked the trunk and made a frontflip to the ground, Philia tightly pressed to his chest.

He panted heavily, his forehead covered in sweat, and his heart throbbing against his chest. Loosening the grip, he let Philia slip out who looked at him with surprised eyes.

"Thanks.." She scratched her slightly reddened cheek.

" _GRHAAAAAAAAA_ "

Sound waves of incredible volume and force reached them from behind. Kirito gradually turned his head around, afraid of the sight he was about to get. A sweat drop rolled down his forehead in fear. Then he met those devil red eyes shining like a laser pointer, with a demonic fire instead of a pupil.

"Skull Reaper..."

* * *

 **A/N: Don't shoot me for the cliffhanger ^^ First of, you guys are great for escalating this much on merely a Prologue I just wrote down without much of a thought. This chapter was one hell of a lot effort, so I hope you write a nice review about your opinion on this chapter.**

 **Trust me, the story will escalate even more, this is just the beginning and I had to start it slow. Unfortunately, I won't be able write the next chapter as fast as I wrote this one since I have to prepare myself for two presentations and two exams next week. Pff, I kinda deserve this for delaying these things until the very last second -_-**

 **I hope you enjoyed it and stay tuned !**

 _ **Sayonara, mina !**_


	4. Black Hole

Chapter 3: Black Hole

"GRHAAAAAAAAA"

Sound waves of incredible volume and force reached them from behind. Kirito gradually turned his head around, afraid of the sight he was about to get. A sweat drop rolled down his forehead in fear. Then he met those devil red eyes shining like a laser pointer, with demonic fire instead of a pupil.

"Skull Reaper..."

The skeleton monster didn't wait long and unleashed an attack with the tail by turning its body. The razor-sharp blade darted millimeters above the ground horizontally to their direction, shortening the grass in its wake.

Kirito readied his swords in a cross block stance, taking on the whole tremendous impact and force behind the giant tail. Unexpectedly, he was able to block it unlike the last Skull Reaper. He couldn't block the attacks of the floor boss only by himself, so he and Asuna had to create a new block mechanism with three swords to stop its strikes. This wasn't the Skull Reaper he knew.

He glanced up to the small half transparent bar next to the huge skull which he hadn't noticed until now in the heat of the battle.

 _Hollow Deadening Reaper_

He barely managed to jump before the tail could hit him, threateningly cutting some hair tip away. The boss had two health bars luckily, the Skull Reaper had five! He strengthened the grip on the handle and kicked the grass beneath him. Dashing towards the skull, he charged a skill which left a trail of intense blue light in the air.

 _Sonic Leap_

He penetrated the tough layer of some kind of bone-armor between its eyes with his Elucidator. His sword didn't went further than the tip but stuck there. Kirito put a foot on the monster's head next to his stuck sword and tried to pull it out by shifting his whole weight into his shoulders.

But the sword didn't even budge in the crack, so he had to let go of it and jump back since the monster was about to start new attacks. Another glance to its gauge told him that Sonic Leap did a massive amount of damage. The Health points of the first bar had decreased around a quarter of it.

Philia rushed at the skeleton centipede, her sword grazing the grass while she charged a normal attack, glinting deep red. She stepped through a gap between its sharp legs while Kirito distracted the beast, and slashed upwards to the spine. This strategy they kept up for a while.

" _GRHAAAAAAAA"_

The centipede growled enraged and seemed to power up when its first bar lost all the points and was left empty. It started to run around at an incredible pace, slashing everything on its way with doubled strength.

Philia was too slow to react so Kirito had to push her off the way and save himself with a side roll as the huge body came at them. They tried to blow one attack each time it passed by, however that didn't seem to do any great damage.

"Philia come here !" Kirito shouted, trying to drown the noise. The girl nodded briefly and dodged another three strikes of various legs before getting to him.

"You have a plan ?"

"Yeah, just follow me"

That was all they could say in the short timespan the centipede gave them. It growled another time and charged headfirst on the two. They responded, Philia darting behind Kirito against the skeleton-centipede head on, both charging their swords and leaving an air-trace of individual light on their way.

The centipede attacked at the one-handed black swordsman with its two huge forearms like a scythe diagonally to meet those in the flesh of its opponent. But Kirito skillfully parried the two scythes with his only sword above his head. The impact coursed from his wrist through his body, making his feet get pushed further into the grassy ground. Then he let himself fall back, both of them stunned for a short while, and let Philia pass by.

"Switch !"

Philia used the moment without wasting a second or movement, and jumped towards the boss' skull horizontally with a stretched leg, which resembled some kind of Karate. She obviously aimed at the sword's grip between it eyes.

Charging energy in her foot, she emitted a blue glow from it while approaching the the skeleton centipede with speed the naked eye couldn't see. Sounds of bones splitting followed the kick. Philia was still in midair with one foot at the bottom of the grip. The crack widened and new traces crossed the whole skull randomly. A low blue shine engulfed the monster before it bursted out in billions of polygons, only thing left being the victory message. Kirito let out a breath he didn't notice he was holding.

Both were too exhausted to talk to they just let themselves fall on the lush grass which was battle-scarred on many spots. They had no idea where they were now since the boss drove them back quite a distance. The jungle wasn't in sight anymore, only wild habited flat area with many bushes and big majestic plants.

Kirito looked at the sky while heaving his chest at a fast pace and supporting his sitting with the hands behind his back. The clouds resembled fluffy cotton-wool and reminded him of his soft bed back at the inn and old log house. He felt the exhaustion and lack of sleep, but forced himself to stay awake. A warm breeze brushed the smaragd grass along with his hair and clothings and made him just grow more tired.

After sitting there some time, the system voice returned and all the tiredness was soon replaced by adrenaline.

 _Hollow Area Introduction complete_.

Introduction ?! So there is more ? Although this boss wasn't that strong as he first thought, it was still a pain in the ass. There was no way he would do something like that voluntarily for the sake of some experience points even if it barely cost an eighth of his health points, it was too tiring.

He let his eyes wander around the place to find something interesting, or rather useful. A small pitch-dark dot in the sky on the horizon behind some mountains could be seen when focused hardly. Half curious and half excited he jumped up and ran to the other sitting person about 20 feet away where the skull of the centipede had been before shattering.

His familiar black coated sword lay there next to the girl with blue hood covering her face. He grabbed the warmed up steel handle and examined the surface of the blade in the reflection of the sun to search it up for any damage. Unfortunately, it had many small scratches at the tip, a long deep one tracing from the tip to almost the handle. He had to repair it as soon as possible but that wasn't possible here.

"Hey"

Philia threw her hood back as she narrowed her eyes seeming to have discovered something behind the frame in front of her.

"You see that too?" She asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"Yeah, let's go there."

Kirito reached out his hand to help her stand up. A smile formed on his lips in excitement and anticipation. He grew to like this place, though it didn't bring any good memories along till now. It was just the feeling of wanting to explore these places from which there wasn't a single map anywhere.

Philia hummed affirmatively and so they took on their long journey to the mysterious dot.

* * *

They walked through a valley surrounded by smaragd-green mountains for three hours talking about the most random topics. It seemed like this path was extra made to lead them to the black dot which could be described as mini orb by now,

"How long do you think it's gonna take us ?" Kirito asked, his gaze locked on the orb.

"Maybe another three hours"

"Ugh"

Out of nowhere, Kirito pressed his index finger against her lips and started to look around worily. Philia furrowed her brows and whispered annoyed.

"What is it ?"

Kirito ignored her question and scanned the area with his search skill. He was sure that he heard and sensed something a moment ago. A gentle breeze swept through the small valley and brushed over the grasses creating a soft whisper.

There ! The sound of clinking glasses reappeared somewhere in front of them. The path led upwards and hid everything leading down behind the peak. With light sneaky steps, Kirito walked up to the peak, and let his jaw fell open with widened eyes as the new image assaulted his vision.

 _Shit !_

The path led down straight, everything like it had been on the way here, just one slight difference this time. Tens or hundreds of blue circular lights appeared in the air and made the clang sound from before. When the blue light died out it revealed humanoid lizardmen mobs. Around three meters tall and a Katana sword equipped in their right hands was the only thing he could tell in the distance.

They couldn't turn around now either. As they looked back from where they had come, innumerable amount of those green frames blocked their possible escape route too.

Kirito unsheathed his swords from the scabbards and threw a short glimpse, seeing Philia having readied herself too for the upcoming rumble. With buffing battle cries, they entered the undodgeable aggression areas of the mobs and continued their way.

* * *

After 5 hours

Blue polygons burst out from where the last lizardman stood, followed instantly by two figures dropping on to the grass. From what he could remember he never felt that exhausted before in his life. Every vein pulsing like crazy, eyelids heavy and only barely being held open, arms and legs half numb.

The lizardmen were pretty skilled with the Katana they had and were able to execute five-hit combos partly. This area had really many strong monsters, stronger than the Floor seventy-six ones. They were strong and exhausting on the one side, interesting and valuable on the other side. Value of mobs showed the efficiency of farming these specific monsters, and these ones had a really high one.

The small dot which they had come for was really near now, but a mountain covered it from the vision of them since they started fighting. Kirito traced a line in his lying position and opened up the inventory. The stamina potions he had picked materialized in his palm. The content was yellow liquid which to be honest really didn't give the impression of tasting good.

He poured the potion in his mouth, only to spit it out a split second later. His mouth sent out a sour crawling through his entire body and caused him to shrug. His face scrunched up as soon as the liquid hit his tongue, tasting like it contained the sourness of a whole lemon in one zip.

He shook his head vigorously to brush off the very least single bit of the taste. Even if he was a fan of spicy food which a normal person couldn't eat without panting, it was the opposite with sour things. He readied himself mentally for the next sip, and downed the whole potion without giving his body time to react.

Beside the ultimate gross feeling filling up his whole mouth cavity and making every taste bud totally numb, he felt a stream of energy flow through every vein of his, into every limb. It provided him enough strength to fight another impostor Skull Reaper or another hundreds of those lizard creatures.

As soon as the small stamina bar in his vision under his his name reached the end, he stood up and went next to Philia who had her eyes shut. _'She must've been really exhausted'_ Kirito chuckled silently.

He took the other stamina potion and poured it into a tiny gap between her lips.

"HHAhahahhaha-..." Kirito burst out in laughter when he saw her expression which was almost the same as his actually, but was cut short by an instant slap.

"What was that for ?!" Philia asked, glaring daggers at him. Kirito couldn't restrain himself from giggling as the picture reappeared in his mind.

"Now we can go on" Philia looked into the left top corner and was surprised as she spotted her stamina bar. She decided to let the "prank" slip and went with him to the peak of the mountain which seemed to be the nearest point to the small orb they've seen last time hours ago. The smirk on Kirito's lips didn't vanish for the rest of their little journey.

* * *

They stood on the peak of the mountain, staring at their actual destination. The image assaulted their brain and was too much to handle for a second. Kirito let his jaw drop due the unexplainable view in front of them.

The small dot they've traveled for has become a round huge sphere. The pitch-dark sphere seemed to even absorb light itself. Chains hung beneath the first slightly transparent layer of the sphere, and almost enveloped it completely. A yellow substance seemed to flow together from the sides to the bottom of it and was on the verge of dripping, but it didn't. The only thing what made sure that it wasn't a picture floating in the air, were bright flashes on the surface.

Kirito's curiosity excited drastically and the urge of rushing in there was great. But there was no way of getting there...

Just as he thought that, a small tickling permeated his whole right hand. The pattern on this glowed up more and more, and the tickling became a prickling.

Kirito looked around to find a clue what could have provoked this. Around him on the cliff was almost nothing beside the short grass and small bushes. He activated his nearly full maxed search skill.

Everything in his vision turned deep blue, and everything of importance would be displayed golden. Since his search skill was on a very high level, he was able to see things through up to 3 layers of standard house walls. Golden smoke went up from behind a bush.

He poked Philia's shoulder and pointed towards the bush. When they had approached the bush, Kirito pushed it away and went on for the actual cause of the shining pattern on his hand.

A small stone plate was lying there on the ground behind the bush. To their surprise it had the exact same pattern like his hand's one carved into it. As he neared his hand the stone plate, the pattern's glow intensed a lot and soon a millimeter before touching it, the pattern emitted a dazzling light.

As soon as he touched the object, the prickling in his hand ended, rather everything fell numb. His vision went black. The ears didn't receive any sound. His body went through something like a tunnel at a very fast pace, was the only thing he could tell and assured that he wasn't dead.

...

He blinked his eyes open. The figure in front of him was blurry, its face very near to his. It seemed to yell something out loud, but everything his ears could register was an almost entirely dampened sound, which didn't even give away the slightest bit of information.

His body felt several tons heavy, and throbbing pain coursed his body at a continuous rate. 'Pain ?' Normally the Pain absorber would prevent him from getting any pain. His mind was too hazy to clearly think about that right now. Although he forced himself to stay awake, his heavy eyelids didn't allow it and closed his eyes. The split second before the system took over his consciousness he heard a clear cry.

"KIRITO-KUN~ !"

* * *

 **And here ends chapter 3.**

 **I couldn't focus at all anymore because of the goddamn weather. The sun is really escalating here. Sorry for that.**

 **Small Preview:**

 ** _The feeling of eyes watching every step he took, every move he made, crept up his neck for now over then ten minutes. This person must have had a really high level in hiding if not even his search skill could detect him or her._**

 ** _"Show yourself! I don't know who you are or why you are following me, but I know you're there!" He shouted into the blind alley, dark shadows thrown onto the cobblestone-pavement and himself by big buildings which gave the impression of breaking in over him._**

 ** _"Interesting, you were able to notice me"_**

 **Don't forget to leave a review about your opinion of this chapter. Also please follow if you are enjoying this story.**


	5. Stalker

**Chapter 4: Stalker**

He blinked his eyes open. The figure in front of him was blurry, its face very near to his. It seemed to yell something out loud, but everything his ears could register was an almost entirely dampened sound, which didn't give away even the slightest bit of information.

His body felt several tons heavy, and throbbing pain coursed through his body at a continuous rate. 'Pain ?' Normally the Pain absorber would prevent him from getting any. His mind was too hazy to clearly think about that right now. Although he forced himself to stay awake, his heavy eyelids didn't allow it and closed his eyes. The split second before the system took over his consciousness he heard a clear cry.

"KIRITO-KUN~ !"

* * *

The sound of continuous robotic beeping dragged him out of what seemed like sleep. He shot his eyes open as he remembered how he lost consciousness since he was in a dangerous place where those lizardmen could still respawn. To his surprise he didn't see the blue sky.

He was straightly looking into dark nothingness. _How did he get here ?_ Thin yellow traces ran across something like a surface, revealing a rounded dark ceiling in its brief light.

He sat up causing flushing pain to shoot through his skull and make his face distort in pang. As the pain ebbed away he dared to open an eye and let his gaze roam around the place.

The vision assaulting his eyes was enough to drop his jaw to the ground and let him completely forget the pulsing pain.

He was sitting on an invisible platform, yellow traces running along certain locations at a certain pace like on the ceiling. The place he was in seemed like the inner of a kind of sphere in complete dimness. Only a small light source beside the brief flashes allowed him to examine the room with great effort and maximum narrowing of his eyes.

The source was an, in the air floating, square centimeters above the ground and blinded in contrast to the darkness around which caused Kirito to avoid a look directly on it. The ground was weakly reflecting the light revealing many smaller less noticeable dark blue traces all around the floor. Beneath the monitor-like light source there was an ultra-dark ashlar with glassy surface, throwing the light hitting it to different directions.

As he placed his hand on to the floor to push his body up, the spot zapped shortly and many circular forms appeared, distancing from the touched spot as they grew in size but weakened in luminosity until disappearing in the distance aproximately five meters away.

Finally, he rose to his feet and made his way to the light source since it was the only thing in the room, or at least what was visible to him. The ground displayed the shape of his footsteps he made in a dark blue colour for several seconds before blurring away and vanishing.

Now in front of the floating light, he had to squint his eyes into a very thin line to be actually able to see anything. The monitor showed some kind of numbers, and the camera drove through a tunnel of spinning yellow 0s and 1s. Somewhere he had seen this before, but he couldn't recall it being happy memories.

Kirito didn't understand. Sure he knew that 0s and 1s were used in electronic devices and that this very world was made of these but why were they now on an in-game screen.

He carefully touched the glassy surface of the dark obsidian ashler reaching barely his knee caps. The screen lit up in a brighter light blue colour which again made him look away shortly. Finally then he realized what that thing in front of him was.

It played a huge role when the worst event ever happened to him in this game. It was when he lost his child and saw his wife weep bitterly, both of them totally powerless.

He currently was using a Game Console.

While the bad memories kept plopping up in his head, joy and happiness overcame him too. Ignoring the blinding light he shot his eyes open and swiped swiftly on the surface of the ashlar. His fingers literally danced over the object.

"..uuuu hmmmmmm..." A yawn could be heard from behind. Kirito shrugged and froze simultaneously. Gradually turning his head, his gaze met with drowsy smaragd orbs of a lion-tooth blonde haired girl sitting on the ground.

"Philia ?!" He exclaimed fully surprised and a little bit embarrassed of not having noticed her even when she were directly next to the place where he awakened.

"Kirito, you are finally awake !" A huge smile displaying bliss and felicity formed on her face with mouth agape.

"What do you mean by finally ?" Rubbing the back of his head in awkwardness as he had a vague idea what he would get to hear.

"You were out a full week !"

The arm rubbing his head stopped instantly before limply dropping and dangling towards the ground. The lower eyelid of his left eye twitched in disbelief as his brain progressed the stuff.

"W-What did you do while I was out of it ?" He mustered to say after a few beats of unbearable silence.

"I waited for you to wake up since there was no way of escaping this place."

A small blush crawled up Kirito's cheeks. He shook his head trying to get rid of the inappropriate thoughts about her watching him all the time.

"But I didn't get to understand that thingie" she pointed at Kirito's direction. He didn't need to turn to understand what she meant. Without knowledge, there was no way of understanding these things written in the very game console.

"Wait a second..."

Kirito let his fingers move around again and quickly dashed through the complicated stuff like spawn rate and attributes of individual monsters. It wasn't possible to change, only to watch. He searched for the option which existed in every other games' normal player menu but not in this one. The LogOut button.

He could feel Philia pressing from behind and peeking over his shoulder. Glimpsing back briefly he saw the ambient light of Philia's eyes shining in curiosity, along the screen's bright light covering some of her pupil's black with a white square of light.

 _Spawn Locations_

 _Spawn Rates_

 _Items (drop rate, forging, upgrade, attributes, possible moves, certain effects)_

 _Monster Attributes_

 _Attack Pattern_

 _Sword Skills_

 _Skills_

 _Bosses_

 _Design_

 _Teleport_

No Log Out

No rights to edit anything

Nothing what could help them advance in escaping this world.

A long sigh of disappointment escaped his lips. When he found the console he really hoped like crazy to be able to do _anything._

"Pity !" Philia must have noticed the mishap since her face had changed from curiosity to one with furrowed brows and puffed up cheeks.

"Let's teleport out !" Kirito finally said after searching for something useful. In the end he had every data about monsters and items copied into his own personal collection of data.

With a short affirmative 'humm' from the girl Kirito pressed on _Teleport_ and scrolled down the list of possible teleportation destinations. All from floor 1 to 75 were grayed out and everything above floor 76 had this small lock attached to it showing that the teleport gate of the respective floor wasn't unlocked yet. With that he hadn't the greatest choice, rather only one gate was free to teleport to.

Receiving a nod from Philia at his side he tipped onto it. Light blue light engulfed him several moments later and let him feel airy. First his feet dissolved in the light before reaching his head. As soon as the light was above eye-height he felt himself racing through a tunnel. Suddenly the bright tunnel went totally black.

He felt his feet touching the stony ground. Slowly opening his eyes he gave them time to adjust to the, at first, blinding light. He saw the familiar teleport gate placed in the middle of the plaza, and it was surrounded by shops. The U-shaped teleport gate made out of clean marmor-like material, and with deep cherry-red blaze in the middle, floated centimeters above the stone pavement.

Four ways led away from the plaza. Many people in the most different equipments walked in and out the plaza, most probably for dealing purposes, at least that was what Kirito supposed.

He neared his fingers the blaze of the teleport gate, to show up its menu and information. A feeling of excitement rushed over him as he saw the unfamiliar name _Hollow Are_ located between floor 76 and the _yet_ unlocked floor 77.

Now he just waited for Philia to come. But why hadn't she already ? To send a message would be a waste of time, she wouldn't receive any and wouldn't be able to send a reply even if she could get messages.

He couldn't teleport back to her either due the annoying cooldown on his teleport crystal. Even if he was sent here by the game console, the cooldown was still triggered.

The cooldown was something new to him when Sword Art Online officially started since it didn't exist back then in the beta. He was able to abuse teleport crystals and farm at various spots while waiting for the cleared mobs to respawn. Of course he made less money since the crystals weren't really cheap. For the one or another they were pretty expensive. But when used and farmed properly like he did, it paid off. He could make tons of money but the game developers, no, _the_ game developer must have found that out and implemented the cooldown into the game.

The cooldown was a full hour.

"Well, nothing I can do there" He brushed off the remorse in the back of his mind with a shake of his head as he looked at the cooldown ticked to 59.

In this moment, a too well known girl with pink blacksmith clothing and pink hair entered his vision. He stared motionless at the girl, searching hardly for an excuse for his absence the whole last week. After a few seconds the girl's gaze met with his and she gave off an enraged look which made Kirito almost run for his life. But she couldn't hide the endless relief she felt.

Rushing over to Kirito who was still thinking about an excuse, she huffed loudly and crossed her arms in front of her. She was obviously waiting for an explanation.

"Ehmm, I am gonna tell you later ?!" Kirito suggested and fully hoped she would agree. Lizbeth pouted a little before the corners of her lips curled down sob and jumped forward to him.

"You know, you weren't anywhere on the map, your cursor just disappeared. We thought something bad happened to you" She got to say between heavy sobs. It took a little before he was able to break out of the dumbfounded and surprised stupor, and form the right words to say.

"You could have just checked The Momentum of Life" Kirito said, making Lizbeth raise her head. Those pink eyes he knew which were always friendly and calm were a pair of saddened and teary ones. She did her best to glare at him.

Then Kirito understood the "angry glare".

"Ahh yeah, floor 1, totally forgot about it..." Kirito affected an awkward laugh. Briefly glaring yet another time she wiped off the tears clinging to the corners of her eyes her clothing soaking it all up and leaving behind a wet spot on her sleeve and redness beneath her eyes.

With a smile she stepped back, finally letting him some room to move freely. With a slight tilt of her head she exclaimed.

"Let's go back"

* * *

"KIRITO~ !"

Silica's crushing hug made Kirito stumble backwards a little. He patted the frizzy brown hair of her tiny body which merely reached his belly.

"Nice to see you all healthy and back." Agil greeted him from behind the counter of his new shop he was led in.

The floor was made of wooden boards strung parallely together and fastened by tiny thin rivets which were barely noticeable. A massive marmor column was placed in the middle of the round room looking somehow dashing in contrast to the wooden standards of the building. Smaller columns supported the building from various other spots spread out the room. The counter encompassed the main column like a ring. Behind Agil's wide frame were drinks rowed stylishly on multiple layers of shelves attached to the column.

As soon as Silica freed him from the embrace, he took a seat on one of the many wooden chairs in the room. They were paired in four around each table. Of course he took the common stools directly at the other side of the counter.

"When did you switch to a drink bar ?" He let his gaze roam through the entirely new shop of Agil's.

"It's not only a drink bar. On the other side of the column is my market, this here is more for fun." Agil said with a clear undertone of proudness at himself.

"For fun ?"

"Yeah, I had a shop in the real world where I was a bartender" He tried to keep a strong voice and face, but his facial expression changed for a split second and revealed his sadness about the loss of his old job.

"Where have you been ?, Asuna really was endlessly worried." Kirito understood the sudden topic change and managed to restrain his curiosity about his real life job.

"Better don't ask" Kirito sighed exhausted as he readjusted his sitting on the uncomfortable and hard wooden stool. There was no way that they wouldn't actually question it but he said it anyway.

"Where is Asuna ?" asked Kirito.

She must have been really worried if he really wasn't on the map for a whole week. One could see him still on the friends list though.

"She is upstairs, finally sleeping. She didn't get any since you went missing."

"Better let her sleep. I will go and get some fresh air." With these words he jumped backwards to the ground. Agil punched his shoulder before he was out of arm range and smiled teasingly at him.

"Don't get lost again !"

….

A cold breeze brushed through his raven hair as he walked through the empty streets of a not well known town district of floor 76. Empty buildings to his sides and empty parks which existed in the game for whatever reason. The game was only allowed for people older than thirteen. When he started to play he had only been fourteen but time flew by so fast, it was almost frightening. Only a little more than a year and he would become an adult. It was sad in its own way.

It made no sense to think about it too much since they didn't even know if they could ever escape this place. The game had some really annoying bugs since the creator's death. Sometimes Kirito thought that it would have been a lot better when he didn't kill Kayaba. The front would be stronger, one could visit floors beneath 76, and all the items would be usable.

With a vigorous shake of the head he dragged his mind out of the cloud of thoughts and fully focused what was in the present right now. Putting his hands into the pockets of the black jeans of his, he inhaled deeply. Dusty odor assaulted his nose.

The feeling of sharp needle penetrating his occiput let him snap.

 _What's this ?_

When the pain subsided he began to walk on as if nothing happened. The feeling didn't vanish, only weakened at first but then it stayed constant.

He walked into a slim alley between huge houses to his right. Those casted an unrealistic drop shadow three steps in front of him. The feeling of eyes watching every step he took, every move he made, crept up his neck for now over then ten minutes. This person must have had a really high level in hiding if not even his search skill could detect him or her.

"Show yourself! I don't know who you are or why you are following me, but I know you're there!" He shouted into the blind alley, dark shadows thrown onto the cobblestone-pavement and himself by big buildings which gave the impression of breaking in over him.

"Interesting, you were able to notice me" A woman's voice hissed in front of him in the shadows.

He narrowed his eyes and readied one hand on the grip of his Elucidator. _Step. Step two. Step three. Step four._

Kirito counted unconsciously and crouched lower in his battle stance with each one. Red-violet, nearly pink eyes shimmered in the dark shadow.

 _Step five. Step six. And the last step to get out of the shadow._

Kirito strengthened the grip and half unsheathed his sword from the scabbard. At the moment he saw the opposites fully revealed body, he let his sword slip through his grasp back into the sheath and loosened the stance.

Lavender hair reached down to the base of the woman's neck with two long strands on either side of her head which went to the top of her breasts. She had two moles on her left breast inside her cleavage, which Kirito couldn't help but notice.

The girl wore a lilac-color, strapless dress with a black piece of fabric going across the breasts and down to her stomach, below an intricate coat. This coat was made up of violet and plum shaded components, reaching as far down as the hem of her dress but also leaving some areas open which exposed the dress below. Above that she wore a collar of the same violet of her coat, outlined in lavender with a red jewel securing the collar in place. It appeared that the components that went over her detached black sleeves were connected to this collar. These components that went over the black sleeves appeared to cover them completely except for at the wrist and hand where it joins to her finger. She wore plum stockings, which had, much like the rest of her outfit, whorls etched on. They went up under the dress and were connected by something triangular.

The girl made a friendly smile towards the stunned Kirito, tilting her head to the side. A face that made Kirito let his guard down unconsciously. If she was someone who wanted to fight him, she would have done it now.

"I'm Strea, nice to meet ya !" The total stranger told him, a finger placed on her underlip.

"Why do you follow me ?"

Strea made a dumbfounded look before shaking her head as if he had understood everything wrong.

"It's rude not to introduce yourself since I've already did."

"My name is Kirito" He sighed in defeat as he realized that there was no way to discuss this thing now here with her since she seemed to be endlessly stubborn. But that only caused Strea to give off an unpleased expression and shake with her finger.

"Nono, I don't mean your name. Tell me more about yourself." Strea came uncomfortably close to Kirito and pressed her body against his, brushing gently downwards his collarbone and making him really embarrassed. Kirito's cheeks shot up red and he had to take a step so he wouldn't fall backwards under the increasing weight.

"What do you want ?" Kirito elegantly swerved another jump from her, letting her stumble as she didn't find the hold on his collar like she was hoping to.

"Is that something you would do to a stranger ?!" Kirito asked rhetorically. She was far too friendly and aggressive (in a good way) to be someone who didn't know Kirito well.

"Well, I've watched you for a while and now get to actually meet you in person. You have a really cute face !" Strea's hands would have cupped his face if he didn't move backwards once more to dodge it.

"Could you please staaahp-..." Kirito's words died out as his head was catched and pressed on something very soft. He struggled for air, but the strength in her arms was immense.

When Kirito started to croak louder and louder, she loosened the _crushing_ hug so he could push himself off of her. Panting heavily for air, he supported his upper body with his hands on his knees.

When he seemed to have catched his breath, he lifted his head.

His face was coloured in deep red, first because of the suffocating hug and lack of oxygen, then because of fury and rage at her impossible acting. At last his face colour changed at least four shades darker as he realized where his face was pressed at.

The clothing at her chest section was all scattered up and an almost perfect oval shape was to be seen on her exposed part of her ... breasts.

Kirito jumped up, blood flushing uncontrollably through his head and heating it up so much, he could nearly feel steam rising from his ears.

He displayed the most dumbfounded look Strea could ever imagine, but she only responded with an unguilty grin. Kirito slowly raised his trembling hand and pointed shakily at her.

"You...are...a pervert !"

Strea's grin froze. Blinking once her eyes didn't open again. A few beats passed before her eyelid raised and revealed her violet eyes. No, not the friendly violet from before, more like materialized curse of the devil.

"Sorry" Kirito waved his in front of him, half in self-defence, half to show his surrender. With a long sigh her expression relaxed and eyes regained their normal colour, letting Kirito feel a lot more at ease.

"But you should know, that I have already a girlfriend." Kirito crossed his arms. He purposely said 'girlfriend' and not 'wife'. People always made this strange look when he told them that he was married and they would always ask him if he wasn't too young for marriage. So he avoided to say the truth here.

"A girlfriend ?!" Strea's eyes sparkled and she had her mouth unknowingly agape. She seemed to be unnaturally interested in him but he had no idea why.

A mere nod made her jump like a little kid.

"I want to see that lady" Strea said that without the slightest hint of a joke. As he already knew how stubborn she was, he only sighed and beckoned her to follow him.

 _'Let's hope Asuna won't kill me for bringing yet another girl with me!"_

* * *

 **I planned this chapter to end with a cliffhanger, but I couldn't :( Well, better for you.**

 **It took me ages to write this chapter and the sad thing is: I dunno why. I had a reeaaally bad writer's block. But now I managed to get around it.**

 **From here on, the story will leave the storyline of the game and get fired up ! The chapter was pretty slow and without any action so I will make up for it in the next chapter.**

 **Preview:**

 **He looked up the huge doors tinted in deep dark black-blue. These doors was surrounded by a frightening aura and crushed players' minds if they weren't prepared mentally. Placing a hand on the metallic door he inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with the scent of rotten animals. He threw a brief glimpse at his beloved and engraved her look in his mind, as if it was the last time he would be able to see her. With an exchange of nods he gathered strength into his forearm and pushed the massive door open. Metallic screaming almost split his ears as the doors opened, scratching the ground beneath it on his way.**

 **The mere sight of the frame of the boss in the shadows made him realize.**

 _ **'This is gonna be nasty as fuck'**_

 **Before you leave, I would love to have you review this story so I get to know your opinion of it. So just take a second and review...pleeeeaaaaase ?!**


	6. HIATUS ! NOT AN ACTUAL CHAPTER

I am on vacation the whole August so sorry for not uploading a chapter. Also sorry, for the false alarm notification.

See you September

Edit: This story will deviate from now on from the game's story. Just relaaaaaax ;)


	7. Godly Existance

**Godly Existance**

 **A/N: Read the A/N below for important changes. Also, sorry that I messed up the Preview of the this chapter, I got another great idea, so no boss fight with Asuna. And before I forget, in the reviews one of you, from whom I can't seem to remember the name (and don't have internet right now to look it up) meant that one couldn't feel weariness/tiredness in SAO. They do (SAO Volume 1 Site 136/137) Enjoy...**

* * *

The reptile figure standing in front of him on two feet dashed his curved machete horizontally at the height of Kirito's throat leaving a half-transparent green arc in its wake, the last slash of the three-hit combo it had unleashed a second ago, and would have made him a head shorter if he hadn't duck under it and let the machete pass over him, hitting nothing but air and some of his hair tips. As the sword skill ended and made it fall into a momentary stun, Kirito took this opportunity and dragged his only sword from the left lower hip diagonally upwards to the right shoulder of the three-meter figure in front of him.

The reptile reacted fast and struck from above downwards, expecting to meet it in the deep flesh of its opponent. Kirito went for a cross-block, out of old habit, but realized too late the non-existent weight on his left hand. Where his hand had grabbed his Dark Repulser once, was now nothing but air to grasp. The tremendous force behind the Reptile's sword was too much to block with a half-cross block, if there even was something like that.

He was sent flying back, his eyes focused on the gauge in the left top corner, decreasing from green to yellow. With two feet and his free-hand, he managed to stop the flying and get his balance back. He hadn't gotten dashed so far, at least not far enough to be out of the aggro-zone. The Reptile stood there with a somewhat triumphant expression, which made Kirito chuckle a bit at its oddity and Kayaba's weird imagination of an MMORPG monster.

He aimed the tip of his Elucidator at the Reptile's chest holding it with both hands, and mumbled the words for his next attack.

"Sonic Leap"

Kicking the ground as strongly as he thought was needed to activate the skill, he let the System Assist take over his movements and fulfill the Sword Skill on its own. Now he couldn't stop the Skill on his own anymore, so he just closed his eyes as he peered and passed through the unmoving body of his opponent.

Opening his eyes as he heard the ring of the Congratulation message, he saw the white window of each after-fight. Received Experience, Gold and sometimes dropped items were shown there. This time unfortunately, no drop, but a bunch of Exp instead. Pressing the Dismiss button the window faded away and disappeared completely. Whipping his sword towards the lower right, next to his black boots he got rid of all of the red particles which covered his sword, and sheathed his sword behind his back. First when he heard the metallic sound of his sword reaching the end of the double scabbard on his back, he relaxed his stance and walked back to the inn.

Though he could form a whole party easily with the people he knew he still preferred to solo-farm since the Exp and Gold wouldn't get divided this way. It was just _his thing_ to solo.

Back at the inn it was like always, he could hear the loud conversations, sometimes friendly ones and sometimes argues, from ten meters distance to the inn outside. He pushed the door open, readying himself for the worst as he did like always.

"Kirito-kun, who is this lady !?" Asuna was the first one to 'greet' him. More like shout at him with a deadly glare and hands pointing at Strea who was sitting innocently next to the standing Asuna. Right, he had told Strea the location of the inn and left her at the park with an excuse about going farming so he could dodge or rather delay this meeting. It wasn't well thought but he hadn't a better plan than this. Just as he had cleared the topic about getting lost, which was actually teleported away, and the whole Hollow Are-topic except about Philia, Strea had decided to visit them a day after and cause trouble again for Kirito.

"Well, you see, I kind of met her and-..."

"I am his girlfriend" Strea interrupted Kirito who was stunned in disbelief of her act, like Asuna and the others were.

"Ki-ri-to-kun" She pronounced each syllable like it was the last thing Kirito would hear, at least he thought he wouldn't get out of this alive due a rampaging Asuna.

"Is this true ?" On her face was a set smile, eyelid twitching and her voice shaking sending chills down his spine.

"Wait , the fuck are you talking about Strea !?" Kirito held both hands in front of him in self-defense against a high probable deadly punch which was almost certain to blow him away at any moment.

"Just kidding!" Strea said finally, a split second before Asuna could dash off. A sigh of ultimate relief told Kirito that he was out of danger, for now at least.

"You must be then Kirito's wife" She looked at Asuna who only blushed at the sudden question, most probably because it was in public, and nodded cutely, Kirito loved it when she was embarrassed but instead of hugging her he just smirked.

"I am just a random fangirl of Kirito" This time, Strea's kidding-face blew off her cover. It was actually true that there had been formed some fan clubs even of him. Asuna had some earlier but that was because she was the second commander of Knights of the Blood and a girl at the same time. Luckily, those fanclubs of Asuna had many girls who admired her so Kirito had not to deal with too many of them. He got sometimes threatened to leave Asuna and some stupid things like that but it was important for a threat to be a high level. Those 'rivals', as he called them, were nothing serious and it was high doubtable if Asuna would ever leave Kirito.

"Seriously, who are you?" Kirito asked, much to Asuna's surprise. Agil appeared on the counter and increased the number of people in the bar so early in the morning from three to four.

"What's up ?" Agil asked while drying a glass.

"Nothing, actually, did you finally get the receipt ?" Kirito seemed to be distracted so much that he completely dropped the Strea-topic which made Asuna curios. With a last glare throwing at Strea who only fended it off with a smile, she went over to Kirito's side at the counter.

"Receipt for what ?" Asuna asked making Kirito punch proudly against his chest.

"My new sword"

"Ahh right, it broke then..." Asuna remembered the scene when it happened. She had the image of the scene still 100% in her memories. Kirito's frightened face facing death, the millions polygons dashing off in every possible direction from his hand. The shadow on Kirito's face thrown by the longsword descending upon him, increasing in size.

"Yeah, stop thinking about it too much." Kirito whispered into her ear as if he could read minds. At least he could read hers. Agil coughed in his fist, either to clear his throat or get the attention of them to start speaking, or both.

"I have the receipt after long time of trading. It was really difficult to find one matching your description. You owe me one ! Anyway, it's an S-Rank receipt, you'll need a maxed out smith, Lizbeth in this case, a lot of rare ingredients which you most probably have, and a lot of money. The latter should be the greatest problem as I suppose." Kirito could only chuckle at the fact that Agil knew him just too well. He blew all of his money for the log house on floor 22, in which they could only stay two weeks before they had to go to the floor 75 boss raid, after which they lost the possibility to go back. Also, S-Rank receipts were the most difficult ones. It wasn't going to be anywhere near easy.

"First collecting ingredients, which ones ?" Kirito asked, fingers pinching his chin.

"Iron, Obsidian, Xermit, Lava Crystal, and Steel" Agil read out loud the materials listed there on the receipt in his hands. Steel and Iron were pretty common so there was no problem as both of them had plenty in their storage, a place where you put items you don't need in your inventory, usually way bigger than an inventory. Obsidian and Xermit, he had luckily got dropped some in the hours of farming, barely enough. Lava Crystal was something he had never heard of or had never seen before. He didn't know any place with lava. Maybe just a name, and it was located somewhere else?!

Kirito swiped his left index finger downwards through the air, invoking the Game Menu. He hadn't had to scroll down in the friends list as her name began with the latter A and his friends list wasn't anywhere near full. He tipped on the message icon next to Argo's name, causing another window of the same scheme to appear.

 _Yo, it's me, Kirito. If you know anything about a Lava Crystal item, tell me._

As expected, it didn't take long for a person, whose living was out of sending messages, to write that much of a text that fast.

 _Yoooooo Kibouuu, long time no see. Unfortunately, I don't have an idea where a kind of volcano place might be. But I know what the problem is. 10.000 Col, my dear._

 _You mean 1.000 Col, right ?_

 _No 10.000 / ten thousand, well for you Kibou my dear I could sell it for 5k_

 _I hate you Argo_

With a long sigh he opened up the trade menu. He confirmed that he _really_ wanted to gift 5k Col without anything in return. The Game wasn't programmed to be able to sell and buy informations so there was no extra option for that, and so he had to trust Argo that he would get his information. However it was sure that _Argo, The Rat_ would never pull somebody over the barrel since it would damage her reputation and that she couldn't afford in the slightest bit.

Asuna and Agil had a conversation ongoing, probably about the newest glitches of the game since the Game Master was dead and couldn't hold everything stable anymore. So was it possible to farm certain areas while stuck in a stone rock for example. You only had to do a rape-train, get every monster's aggro and let the bunch follow you to the stone rock, for example, and kill them all while being invulnerable against their attacks. How to get out again was depending on where you used the glitch. Sometimes you could just casually walk out and sometimes you were stuck there and were forced to teleport out.

"Could I borrow some money, Agil ?" He didn't need to ask Asuna since they shared the same inventory. But Asuna's items were always stored at the bottom spaces of the inventory as she didn't want Kirito to see her private stuff. Even if it was appealing to _just check briefly,_ he had to promise to Asuna that he wouldn't, and he kept it despite all the curiousity.

"How do they say it again ?, hard-earned items are the best ?" Agil snickered.

"No, never heard of that." Kirito obviously lied, he has never been a good liar and the truth was always written clearly on his face.

"Whatsoever, now we only need to wait for Argo to come." Asuna, who was pretty quiet up until now, spoke.

"It looks that way..." Kirito sighed bored. Suddenly, Strea jumped to her feet, making much noise while doing so to draw the attention from the others. With a hand pressed on her forehead, she made the impression of thinking very hardly.

"Kirito, _it_ comes !" Before Kirito could ask _what_ she meant, his body was engulfed with blinding yellow light.

'Shit, not again' In a fraction of a moment, his vision went from the worried faces of his friends to _black._

* * *

No way to escape. She had tried it several times by now.

"Teleport Floor 76 !"

Nothing happened. Why did it work when the boy did the exact same? The worst thing of all, was that there was no door to the outside from the sphere she was trapped in for about a whole day. Once again she went through her Game Menu, reading the texts for the umpteenth time.

She registered something in the corners of her eyes. Some kind of movement. Unsheathing her sword rapidly, she held it in front of her while throwing the hood of her blue coat over her face so the opponent couldn't see her face. It was a steady habit of hers that she enveloped during the two years of captivity in the game. 'Never let your opponents see your face' was an unbreakable rule she taught herself.

A lying frame of a human body had appeared out of nowhere. She slowly stepped towards it slowly in the darkness,the only light being the weak monitor shine, ready to attack at any moment. Closing the distance to merely two steps the body started moving and groaned.

"Ugh..."

She stopped her advance, fully focusing on the movements the shaded body did, so she could defend when it comes to a surprise attack by the mysterious person's side. Though it was no attack, she still was surprised when she recognized the person who had picked himself up from the ground, the form of his coat and the double scabbards, sticking out over his shoulders, giving his identity away.

"Philia ?" Though she couldn't see his face, she could tell from his voice alone that he was really surprised to meet her.

"Finally." Philia bend her arms under her bust and huffed annoyed. He had left her behind here and went away without saying a word

"How dare you leave me behind !" Philia threw a punch at him, her strength stats decupling the power behind it as Kirito got to learn, or rather experience. Kirito had expected anything of the reunion but that. His agility couldn't help him when he didn't realize an attack before it was too late. Her knuckles digged into the light chest armor he wore before the tremendous impact kicked him away. She watched the figure flying backwards, feet unconnected of the ground, into the very depths of the darkness. After few beats, a loud boom let her know that Kirito's _flight_ must have been ended.

But the boom wasn't everything. The ground shook violently, Philia giving her all to maintain her balance, without success. The sphere tilted to the direction of where she had blown Kirito. Rolling over the slanted ground without anything to stop her, the dimness ever-brightening, she found only moments later no ground under her, but a frightening scenery.

They were out of the sphere, for who-knows-why, speeding towards the _actual_ ground. Tiny little dots made out the trees behind the half-transparent clouds, coalescing into a big green sea covering the whole ground beside mountain ranges cutting here and there into the forest. Even if they fell with frightening speed, the scenery didn't seem to come closer since they were very high. Only the immense air draft which tugged her hood back and made her coat and hair flail upwards like crazy, reminded her that she was still falling.

She squinted her eyes, both in fear and the huge amount of air dashing on her face, till a hand touched her on the shoulder.

"Look at what you did, ts ts tss" Turning around she saw Kirito's body in a vertical position as if he would stand on an invisible ground, and shook his head disappointedly at Philia with arms bound together. His raven hair and coat weren't in any other condition than hers.

"What is wrong with you ?!" She shouted to the ear-filling sough. But seriously, what was wrong with him. Was he blind? He obviously didn't see the situation they were in.

"You are crazy ! Blowing away everything with a single punch!" Pronouncing the 'you' and pointing at her, made her somehow aggressive again. Just when she thought the boy was nice, he had to destroy that thought by leaving him behind in that sphere and not even accepting his fault.

"You better have a plan." Philia shouted with all the might in her lungs, hoping to penetrate the huge wall of recklessness and density in his mind. But a huge ear to ear smile while sitting cross-legged in the air was all she got and told her that she was indeed ...totally screwed.

"So, why are you so pissed ?" Kirito asked with a loud voice, keeping the smile of his as if he would enjoy all that stuff happening.

"Why now ?!"

"Cause it still hurts! That went too far!" He rubbed his chest section with circular movements of his palm, joking as he couldn't have actually felt pain.

"Goddamnit, think !"

"I might have a plan. But you'll need to apologize first."

"What ! Are you serious ?!" Philia couldn't hold her balance and started twisting and tilting into every direction. She could have sworn she heard Kirito chuckle behind the ear-numbing sough of the air. Then Kirito turned to the side and crossed his arms in an insulted way, eyeing her from the corners of his eyes. They broke through a cloud, indicating that they were almost at the ground, approximately a quarter to go.

"Okay, okay. I-am-sor-ry, satisfied ?!" She couldn't tell how much till they would strike in like a meteorite, she had lost orientation a while ago as she spinned around every axes of her body.

"Come here" Kirito teased Philia who only answered with a pout which should have been unseeable for Kirito as she had lost complete control of the fall.

"Haha, how funny of you" Philia shouted back with sharp sarcasm in her voice. Kirito first brought his body into a horizontal position, arms and legs stretched out for a slower fall, and then tilted his body slightly forward to reduce the air drag of his body and fall faster towards the spinning Philia.

"Gotcha !" Kirito wrapped his arm around her back and pulled her tight at his own body. Philia blushed furiously and looked away so he couldn't see it, despite the situation. Somehow his warmth was pleasant and his scent was tempting. She didn't feel like being in a life-endangering situation anymore for mere moments before Kirito strengthened the grip and made her blush darken a shade.

"Don't let go of me, ever." Doing as he told her she glimpsed to the side at Kirito's side profile which had changed from carefree and funny to cold-serious. Since they first met, along the fight against the mini-boss, and endless lizardmen, she hadn't seen him with this expression before. It was simply overwhelming. He was giving off an astounding aura of responsibility, far greater than of many adult she happened to meet. No, it was _the greatest_ she ever happened to experience. He was responsible for two human-lives now, and something told her in those concentrating onyx eyes of Kirito's, that this wasn't the first time he was holding human-lives in his very hand.

However, that didn't stop the ever-nearing ground.

The sea of green little merely pixels had turned into separable tree crowns, and the mountain ranges weren't only a thick gray line but with noticeable tips and different lightened surfaces. Kirito was in the meantime the coolness in person. He hadn't even blinked since grabbing her, and his silently moving lips gave away that he was calculating things in his head very thoroughly.

The dots of tree crowns were now visible as detailed trees with leaves and twigs, about ten meters below them. In the next moment, they had crushed through the leaf canopy, sharp twigs here and there drawing barely visible red lines at various spots of their bodies. For the first time then, she realized his plan, merely a split second before he executed it, and it was ... just brilliant.

They were falling towards a mountain range, which was overgrown with trees and seemed like being level with the forest. They missed the tip of a mountain by a half meter and slided down the everything but comfortable and flat ground. The ground was very slanting, almost vertical, so it didn't take the fall, but redirect it. Kirito held her with both arms around her belly while she was lying above him and sliding down the mountain. Her eyes fixed on the little HP bar in the corner of her HUD, she was surprised that she hadn't taken damage at all. She could tell that Kirito hadn't the greatest time of his life since the shaking of the uneven stony ground made ever her feel like blacking out.

Having reached the foot of the mountain, the slide ultimately stopped and Kirito loosened the grip around her so she could roll off to the side. Focusing her eyes on Kirito's character for longer than three seconds made his cursor and HP gauge appear. It was in very dark yellow, a light punch away from getting in the red zone. He panted heavily without a sign of wanting to stand up anytime soon.

"How..." Philia got out, still half in shock.

"We walked...past here...when...we fought... the lizardmen." He got out between heavy pants, and longer pauses in between. Philia had no idea what he meant.

"I thought earlier when we walked towards the sphere, how much fun it would be when I could slide down one of the mountains earlier, and so I tried." Kirito's usual self was back, grinning childishly. She couldn't believe it, a second ago she thought that it was impossible that this kid was around her age and that he had to be a mature adult, at least she thought that he had to be around her age from appearance alone, and now she was thinking that he had to actually stay back in The City of Beginning in the church with the other kids.

"It was far more fragile than I had expected." Philia said and made Kirito's expression froze as he remembered the punch. With a long deep breath he stood up and pinched with two fingers his chin while looking to the cloudy sky to the vague spot where the sphere was floating minutes ago. Philia followed his line of sight, and she couldn't tell whether it was amazing or frightening.

The sphere was falling very slowly. Endless much dust seeped through the huge innumerable cracks on the surface of the sphere, which couldn't be described as sphere anymore as the round object had fallen into many pieces of bricks and crumbles. They gazed at the scene for another tens of seconds in silence before it crashed, at least they thought it had crashed as shattered polygons erupted like a volcano from there.

* * *

They watched the polygons soar up from an seemingly never-ending fountain. First, after around twenty seconds the polygons started to fade away, which was relatively to normal mob deaths very long. While Philia gazed sitting on the ground, with an expression hard to read, at the event, Kirito used the time to think about many things. Like, why did a Game Master room break so easily though it must have been made with immortal walls, why Philia was so angry at him, and why he was here again. Here in Hollow Area.

He had told Philia that he wanted to explore this areas but first when he had his second sword. And know with the Game Console broken, he had no chance of getting back.

Kirito poked Philia's cheek, freeing her from the little stupor in which she was, only to receive an immediate glare. He reached a hand at her, which she hesitantly accepted and let her help standing up.

"Do you have a map ?" Kirito asked suddenly. Philia had the usual Philia-expression on he was so familiar with by now, as if she would hiss _what do you plan this time ?!_

"I have, but the actual question is if I can trust you..."

"Yes" The answer may have not been any convenient, but it seemed to work by Philia as she moved her fingers in the air, on her Game window as Kirito supposed since he couldn't see it. Moments later his window plopped up in front of him, asking if he wanted to accept the Map Data of hers. With a swift movement of the hand and thankful nod, he closed the menu.

He sat down on a tree crop and took a small healing potion out of his Quick-Use Inventory. This inventory wasn't like the normal one, this one didn't need as many clicks as the other one. This one could be called with a single hand movement so you needn't have to spend so much time on invoking it, and so you could use life-saving potions in combat. He had from great healing and stamina potions to small ones everything stored there.

He could have waited for the Regen of his character to kick in about what was definitely nothing to nag about, but he liked to used it despite it as he had too many of them anyway and wanted to get rid of them as they were simultaneously somewhat useless in these high levels.

After he went sure that his Health Points were in the green, he called the Map function of the Game Menu and beckoned Philia to come over. While she came he changed the visibility of his Menu from Private to Public so she could actually see his Map and plan along.

The Map of Hollow Area was fully explored and made Kirito question from where she had got this Data. There was no way she could have explored everything by feet.

"Are you a treasure hunter ?"

"Maybe" In her voice that kind of something that would let you know not to get more into that topic. So Kirito set it aside, unwillingly.

With more precise examining, it proved to be weird. Not that kind of haha-weird but the more geographical and uncreative weird. The perished god of this world, Akihiko Kayaba, must have been lazy or almost out of time when creating this place of Sword Art Online. They were currently on the first island, signalized with a red dot. All the islands were perfectly circular, which was totally not Kayaba's style. Three islands in total, all circles, rowed in a line from left to right. The islands had no name which was too very untypical for Kayaba. The third island was grayed out and had lock in the center, showing that they would have no access to that one for now. He had never seen any of those locked places in Sword Art Online but could tell the exact meaning of it from experience he had gathered from more story-based MMORPG.

"I suppose, we have to kill the second island's boss to get to the third island, since the second island was unlocked when we killed the first island's." Philia sat next to KIriro and underlined her explanation with inherent hand-moves.

"I guess we take this route." Kirito traced with his forefinger along a brown displayed path, which was pretty much centered and looked like some kind of main-path due its slightly thicker edges.

"Let's go." Philia exclaimed as she jumped up from the crop. Just as he wanted to stand up and follow the hyperactive girl, a pang shot through his skull. Before he could react in any way, everything started to fade rapidly. The image of the trees and smaragd-green grass was replaced by pure _white._

"Kirito" A middle-aged man's voice sounded seemingly from everywhere and every direction at the same time. As he recognized the voice, a chill ran down his spine and made his hair stand on end. It was the man who was shown on every newspaper front page he read, in every PC magazine, a genius but simultaneously a monster, and someone who should have been dead by now.

"Kayaba !" Kirito spun around furiously on the invisible ground, meeting the person he wanted to meet, or not. Kayaba's real body, not his Heathcliff-character but the one he knew from highly diverse newspaper articles, floated in the air, hands in the pockets of his doctor's gown, and glasses below the nose bridge almost at the tip. Kirito immediately swung his hands back, one gripping the Elucidator and the other one the air.

"You can't hurt me, I am an astral object." Kayaba said so relaxed that it made Kirito's stance nearly relax unconsciously too.

"What are you doing here, you must be dead" Kirito hissed trying to keep his calmness over the rage building inside of him.

"No worries, I got what I deserve, my body in the real life got killed but I was able to save my 'soul' simply put, into the internet." Kirito sheathed his sword back, as there was no way that Kayaba could fight.

"Tell me Kirito, what do you think of this game." Kayaba adjusted his glasses with his index finger and waited for Kirito to answer who was pretty surprised at the sudden question and took longer than he would have.

"I still think it is the best game I've ever played, to be honest. I feel like this world is more real than the actual one, and I got no idea why. Without the death-topic in this game you could have made history as the best game-designer ever, but you decided to be a murderer." Those were his honest words and made Kayaba chuckle amusedly.

"I worked tons of hours to create this world, to let you live in this world rather in the other boring one." Glancing at Kirito who only answered with an understanding nod he continued.

"And then I, the Game Master, was defeated by a teenager. Now you ask yourself why you aren't out here yet, right? The answer is simple, I failed. Failed to destroy this world I had spend my life-time on. But the game wasn't stable any longer as the automatic assistant destroyed 0,01% of all the data in Aincrad, An INCarnating RADius." Kirito clenched and unclenched his fists uncountable times as Kayaba held his speech.

"But it had another reason too, I wanted to see your real strength, in a world created by me. I want to see the real limits of this world reached by a player. This here, the Hollow Area, was a testing area for bosses which were too weak or too strong, different algorithmus, diverse items, mere mobs, sword skills and so on. After finishing off a boss, you found the old Game Console which I had revoked of any Administrator rights and wasn't stable any longer, but you got sent here again by a glitch. Well, that won't happen again, I promise." Kirito gulped loudly, hopefully not loud enough for him to hear. So Philia was sent here by a glitch too? He wanted to ask why he had felt pain once, when he fought the Lizardmen. Where Yui was. How he could get her back. How he could get out of this mere test area. And most importantly, why Kayaba had made himself visible towards Kirito. The cold voice of the floating former-god dragged him out of the irritating cloud of thoughts.

"Don't tell anyone from this meeting! If you do, you will regret it since I have still control over a few things, very bound but still enough." Kirito nodded silently. Though he tried his best to stay unhit by his words and calm, he couldn't prevent the sweat drop rolling down his forehead. Whatever it was, Kirito didn't want to experience it. He wouldn't have said anything to anyone anyway except maybe to Asuna. But now she was out too.

"See you !" Kayaba's astral figure turned and floated away, a raised hand waving back at Kirito with barely noticeable movement. The ' _white_ ' which made out the ceiling, walls or rather sphere, and ground at the same time, slowly was replaced by mostly green colours, and he found himself in the exact same position as he had left _this world._ Then the blue light of teleportation dominated his vision, flashing once blindingly bright and fading away in the same moment.

It took him several moments to realize, he was standing in front of Agil's shop with Philia next to him.

A chill colder than ice rushed down his spine as he thought what would happen in mere minutes, or seconds.

* * *

 **A/N: I will completely cut it off from the PS games since I feel like the most of you would like it that way. A good thing, now that I have Philis and Strea in, I can do that without regrets ^^. The Hollow Area was a mistake to bring in, so I apologize for that and hope I was able to end that with this chapter. Sorry for that. Now it will be more like** _ **Adventures Floor 75+**_ **. Also, don't think the introduction of a new sword was for nothing ^^(And no, it's not the one from the receipt, it has to be more adventurous, aren't I right ?) Just wait for the next chapter :P**

 **Sayonara !**

 **Next Chapter: Blazing Incernation**


	8. Happy Birthday, Leader-san !

It's been a long week since I've met the astral figure, or rather embodiment of Kayaba's mind. The more I thought back at the short conversation, the more a bad feeling grew in me. I had no explanation for that, but all my senses cried alert without giving a single reason.

Something bad was incoming...That's the only thing I knew...

"Kirito" Asuna's petite voice awakened me from my little absence of mind. I glimpsed over to her, then towards the boss.

 _'The Tyrann Sharun'_ I murmured its name silently as my eyes scanned its entire massive posture, build and features.

Light gold armor covered his belly-chest area, shimmering dazzlingly in the weak crescent moon and infinite numbers of stars. From the gold plate of armor, four muscular, gray-furred limbs stuck out. Each hand held a curved sword which was almost invisible in the dark, its surface mixing into the dimness only too well.

And on top of all, the head. A protruding jaw, frightening sharp fangs sticking out from its closed mouth, and those blazing rage-filled orbs which could hallucinate one if one stared into them for too long. An eerie aura of danger enveloped it, a wolf standing on two feet and measuring four meters in length roughly.

The _'The'_ in the monster's name gave its status away. A boss, a field boss to be more exact. The cursor over its head was coloured in the darkest of the red shades there was, signaling danger.

It took me another while till I realized the worried pair of eyes next to me, belonging to the same person who called out for me just a second ago.

"We don't have to do it..." She said, almost trailing off before finishing her sentence.

"We have to. The Experience dropped here should be great according to Argo." I responded slightly confused about her change of mind. We had decided to farm mobs and at last the field boss. It wouldn't be easy, fighting the field boss with only five players. Me, the fallen dual-wielder, Asuna, The Flash and temporary leader of Knights of the Blood, more graceful than ever before, Klein, the honorable samurai of Furinkazan, Agil, the strongest among us with all his stats in strength, and Philia, the mysterious girl with whom I happened to fight alongside once before.

"But..." Asuna started again, sending me a flurry of feelings in only a single glance before refocusing on the boss. I merely shook my head and took a step forward. As soon as I stepped into the wide aggro-range, the boss' eyes blinked in a flashy red and a loud growl reverberated in the silent night between stone hills and caves.

 _'Just you wait, Kayaba. I am gonna end this game be it your will, or your worst nightmare !'_ I don't know from where the rage came from, but if I had a guess, I would say that Kayaba's words had provoked me somewhat.

*ZZZZZZZ NNGG* I forcefully unsheathed Elucidator, causing a metallic screech. Brandishing the sword, I shifted it on waist level and crouched low into my battle stance. Making sure everyone was ready, I darted towards the huge frame in the darkness.

The single sword in my hand left a weak trail of white light as it cut through air, nearing its target. I jumped inhumanly high to let the sword meet the flesh at the side of its neck, or in worst case its shoulder.

But the speed of the boss wasn't allowing my action, as expected, and soon its sword intersected with my trajectory, stopping the Sword Skill violently. A loud scream of metal meeting at high-speed was unleashed along a little cloud of sparks dancing in front of my eyes. Everything seemed to slow down as my senses heightened and adrenaline pushed into every point of my body.

The tremendous force behind its machete was too much to handle for me, at least with only a single sword which was as weak as someone who just had lost his soulmate. Either it was my imagination that weakened my sword, or it was true that it reacted to the loss in that way.

"Switch !"

My attack blocked with overwhelming strength, I was sent flying onto the stony ground, as I called for the switch with all my might. It was strange not to feel the impact and pain which would have rushed into my frail body and would have rendered me immobile. Fortunately there was a Pain Absorber in this game.

Almost immediately, I raised to my feet and rushed towards the multiple colorful flashing lights of Sword Skills in the dimness of night. Tiny red lines adorned my body leaving a stinging feeling which seemed to be too less of a pain to be suppressed by the Pain Absorber, but my health was still in the green.

With quick steps I covered the distance in a few moments before exchanging blows again. That went on for around twenty minutes till the field boss dropped and bursted out into infinite shatters of glass.

* * *

"That was well done !" Philia cheered as we walked our way back to the the base, Agil's bar to be honest. I could only nod affirmatively since the experience points even surprised me. Watching the street lamps throw enveloping orange coronas on the stone pavement as we passed them, I pulled the collar of my coat nearer to me. Little white clouds of oxygen were puffed out continuously from our mouths in the cold night. Burying my hands in the depths of my pockets I listened to Klein.

"So, what are we gonna do tomorrow ?" He asked with a grin floating on his face. Before anyone could answer, I talked up.

"I have things to do." An almost immediate answer left my lips half subconsciously. As fast as the smile on his face appeared, it vanished in an instant before another smile followed, this time obviously affected.

"Ok, if it is important…" Klein exclaimed.

"I just wanna sleep as soon as p-yaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwn…" I covered my mouth with my palm as a loud yawn interrupted me in mid-sentence.

"You're always like that... " sighed Asuna. Another yawn followed,—this time from the tender chestnut-haired girl walking beside me. Laying her head onto my shoulder her peaceful scent seeped into me and I of course enjoyed her close accompany.

"You seem like you gonna fall asleep right now." I joked as I grabbed her hand and we intertwined fingers. The ring on her annulary was reminding me how lucky I nevertheless was. Getting such a beautiful girlfriend must have been a wonder. At least I liked to describe it as one. Maybe getting captured in this game wasn't bad, but luck...

Soon the very first houses of the town came in sight.

There wasn't a long timespan in between me entering the city and me falling asleep on the soft double bed.

* * *

The 30th September 2024 started with a great morning. No clouds on the blue sky, many twittering birds high above the roofs, and the little warmth the bedsheet gave her as she snuggled deeper into it was a relatively good morning, if compared to other ones such as ones as Kirito wasn't at her side, somewhere in that _Hollow Area_ as he told her later. She spent those nights with little to no sleep at all. But she noticed something odd as she thought about those things and turned her body, expecting Kirito's cute sleeping face.

Only then she realized, the bed was used only by a single person. Usually Kirito would be sleeping there since she always was the one to stand up earlier and watch his cute sleeping face for some minutes until he normally waked up. But Kirito had already left, and that must have been really early as his part of the bed was feeling very cold. Slight panic build up in her mind as she sat up in an instant and threw her glances through the whole room, hoping to see Kirito sitting on the only chair of the room.

But he wasn't there…

A message she didn't notice until now in the corner of her HUD blinked, and she opened it up with nimble fingers.

"..." The short message curled the corners of her lips up into a smile as she read it thoroughly. It was as she had hoped fervently, from Kirito.

[I've some things to do with some people so it will be late before I can return.. Agil will have to close his shop for a while today...At 6pm he said he would reopen it again, so I will be back until then. Meet me there.

-Kirito]

As she thought about it, little bit of confusement struck her, but she decided to brush it off. If Kirito had things to do, he should do so. Even she had a lot to do because the little 'break' to reorganize everything after that heavy game glitch, came slowly to an end. And after all she had the highest position of the mighty guild whose previous leader had fallen in a fierce battle between the two strongest humans in this world. And since then, Knights of the Blood has a new leader, The Flash Asuna.

"haaa…" A heavy sigh was caused only by imagining the tons of work she had to do. With reluctance, but stronger will, she walked out of the inn and headed towards the base of KoB.

* * *

"Finally she's away…" I murmured while I observed Asuna's elegant figure distancing itself before disappearing around the next corner.

I walked out of my little hiding place in a dark alley between high buildings.

"Hey-!" Sounded behind me and I turned my head 90 corners to the right and glanced at the person behind me through the corners of my eyes. A little figure was standing there totally clad in brown garment. Blonde locks dangled at the side of the person's face and whiskers drew three lines each cheek.

"What do you want ? I sensed your appearance a while ago but my job here is more important." I said with a low unemotional tone which surprised Argo.

"Even if you sensed me, you couldn't possibly have sensed my cute assistant here." She made gesturing hand moves to her side. What surprised me was the familiar face which met me in the same crowd as I was. Those lavender-coloured iris and milk-pale skin no one could ever confuse with someone else.

"Strea ?!..." I had my eyes wide and jaw dropped for a second before I noticed and closed it right after. It was always a mystery to me how high Strea's level of hiding was. Argo was considered high but I managed to sense her if I just concentrated a bit, but Strea was impossible to sense.

"Hello, Kibou-kun !" Strea greeted as she tugged the brown hood back and revealed her smooth violet hair.

"You teached her to call me Kibou ?" I asked in a joking tone. Strea was hanging around with Argo a lot, but I never thought she would tell her to call me like that. It was more like a special name...

"Whatsoever, why do you hide from Asuna ?" Argo asked me while she stared in the direction in which Asuna went out of sight.

"Come with me..." I sighed loudly and beckoned them.

"It will be great !"

* * *

"Agil, you done?" I shouted loudly across the crowded room to overcome the conversations of various others.

"Yeah, you Klein ?" Klein raised a thumb and grinned ear to ear.

"The drinks are ready."

"Good, good.." I went through the long list in my head.

"Philia, you ready ?" I asked after walking next to her, who stared at the laid table full of crystals and food.

"Yeah, seems like it..." She averted her gaze to me, before shifting them back.

"But the main _thing_ isn't here yet..."

"Shit, it won't be long till it's 6pm!"

"Go, go, go, it has to be absolutely amazing."

"I know, I know, arrrgh..."

INSERT LINE BREAK

It was a hard day. Many recruits, message-sending here and there, and a lot organizing she to go through. As she walked out of the building of Knights of the Blood, already fatigue and tiredness lingered in her body despite it being only 5.30pm. All the exhausting and boring she had to do all day strengthened the wish for this moment. The moment to end all this frustrating work and get back home.

She had lost track of the date, nor the month was known to her, but through the drastic weather changes she guessed it to be mid-autumn. Circa two years ago she received the greatest shock of her life and couldn't stop trembling for like two weeks. But time passed in a heartbeat, and now she was standing here, at the top of an entire guild which is said to be the strongest one among all. So much had changed since then.

The greatest change of her personality brought her love to a certain person along.

"..." Happily, and suddenly full of energy, she stepped through the rows of houses under the darkening sky. Autumn didn't only made the weather colder, but shortened the days as well. Mid-height houses grazed the bottom outline of the majestic orange-shining sun and threw big and mighty shadows on the ground.

Accompanied with little street lamps which were more than enough to lighten up the empty streets, she continued her walk for another five minutes until Agil's bar came into vision.

A glance to the corner of her vision told her that she had arrived ten minutes earlier than planned. While curiosity urged her to go in earlier than Kirito had told her to do, she tried to hold back. It was odd, Agil never would have closed his beloved shop, except when going on boss raids.

"Very odd…." She thought out loud.

"Maybe just a peek ?!" A childish grin painted her face as she took a step forward to stand right in front of the huge wooden door of the bar.

"Tadaima~~" She called out lowly as she peeked through the little gap caused due her weak pushing.

Everything was dark, not even the outlines of furniture were noticeable. Just as she pushed further a familiar voice made her jump and turn on her heel at the same time.

"Hey" Kirito grinned innocently. Asuna forgot about the moment ago as she saw his face smiling again since a long time.

"Hey" She mirrored his actions. Kirito pecked her cheek briefly and she swung her arm into the hole he formed with his arm. Arm in arm they walked into the bar of Agil's without a single trace of reluctance. At least Kirito didn't seem to care as she was led. He pulled a chair back and made a gesturing move which was barely seeable in the darkness. Sitting down, he tabbed on the surface of a candle being apparently on top of the laid table. The whole room lightened up with a flash, and was dyed in brazen orange. The light didn't hit much of the room and left the majority dark, but this light was enough for the moment.

"So, how are you ?" Kirito asked as he sat down on the other side.

"Exhausted, but fine" She said while her mind shifted back at her workplace and a little sigh escaped her throat.

"Before I forget to ask, why is Agil's bar closed ?" Kirito only folded his hand. She could have sworn that she saw a fleeting smile of his for a split second before he effortly made it vanish instantly.

"Well, he had to do something…"

"And that would be ?" Asuna asked just as she noticed the put up a face which tried its best to remain stern.

"Kirito~?!" The mentioned person put both of his hands on the table and neared his head to hers until only millimeters were left. Kirito stared deeply into her while she stayed watching those onyx eyes shimmer in the weak candle light.

"You know what ?" He asked quietly.

"What ?"

—HAPPY BIRTHDAY— !

From multiple spots of the room the HAPPY BIRTHDAY shouts reverberated along the shooting sounds of party poppers while the whole room flashed brightly and lit up. People all over the place were revealed in that single moment who laughed and smiled as they neared Asuna and congratulated her cheerily.

Among them were Silica, Klein, Argo, Lizbeth, Strea, Philia and a lot of her subordinates from the guild and general raid groups. At least fifty people spread across the big room.

Joy overcame her as she registered the many people and something she had forgotten herself. Her birthday...

"Wow, thanks everybody. Truly, I love you all." She clasped her hands in front of her mouth and tears dared to drop from her wetted eyes. This was responded by happy cheers, snickers and chuckles and a lot of 'You're welcome''s.

She let her gaze wander across the room a second time. Decoratings adorned walls, chairs, tables and even the ceiling. A long banner was hung up on the wall across with the text "Happy Birthday Asuna !".

"Again thanks ! I can't believe it. I even forgot it myself." She exclaimed again.

"If you want to thank someone, then it's Kirito who had the whole idea!" Asuna averted her gaze from Klein to Kirito who just had folded his hands and had the expression of someone whose plan ended up successful.

"My pleasures, dear lady." He chuckled and rose to his feet. Swiping some symbols in the air which was undoubtedly the Game Window, an item materialized in his hand out of blue polygons. Something big and circular on top of a plate, covered with cream and glamorous layer of sugarcoating appeared. The other moment she realized what it was, a birthday cake of course !

"I love you !" Asuna said as she unbelievable gazed at Kirito who shrugged his shoulders.

"Talking to me or the cake ?" He joked, receiving a moment's glare before pouting she pufffed her cheeks and murmured insulted.

"Of course you, silly..." The once normal cheeks assumed a red tone.

"Happy birthday, Asuna !" He said as he placed the cake on the table and took few step back.

"It wouldn't be a birthday party if there weren't any presents, right ?!" Kirito raised his voice and smirked while doing so.

"Since you could have seen the item in my inventory I gave it to Agil." Asuna blinked a few times before she actually understood what was happening.

"Here..." A red little box adorned by a beautiful golden veil, was placed in front of her by Agil, who immediately took few steps back.

 _A present from Kirito ?!_ Asuna's cheeks didn't show any sign of returning to their normal covers as she watched over the red box with curiosity sparkling in her hazel eyes.

With a gentle moves she removed the veil, before laying her hand across the upper part. Taking a deep breath, she opened it.

She didn't realize while looking at the content, but her eyes started to spill tears of joy while she gazed wordlessly at the item.

A silver necklace, which was shimmering and sparkling under the lights of the room, radiant enough to even lighten up the streets at night. The gem of the necklace, was a wonderful and lively shining red rubin. In real-life this necklace would have been hard affordable even for her family, and in-game that shouldn't have been any different.

While she eyed the light-reflecting and mesmerizing surface of the rubin, Kirito, who had gotten next to her, whispered into her ear.

"And ?" Asuna's lip curled up as if she was told a joke, and only a heartbeat passed before dashed forward and gave Kirito a crushing hug. An embrace with all she got in her body.

"It's perfect." She whispered back, before taking her head back and kissing him with all she got. They melted into their short kiss which transmitted more information than words could ever contain. The connection of their lips didn't take long, and a teasing voice was heard.

"Getting all romantic here..." Undoubtedly, the voice belonged to the pink-haired girl, Lizbeth. Upon those words, they instinctively broke apart and grasped for air.

"Now it's my turn to give her a present !"

"No, I am next."

"Bullshit, it's my turn..."

Among those argues between several people, Kirito and Asuna gazed each other for what seemed like an eternity. No words were needed, and would never be.

That day finished faster than Asuna could register. It's just as they say, good times end fast, and that evening felt only like a moment.

* * *

 **Feels rushed ...hm ?! Sorry...I've got next to no time. Even this little filler-chapter (to loosen up things) came a day too late...such embarrassment, much sad.**

 **While writing this chapter only half of my mind was was working while the other one was planning a nice adventure which will happen soon.**

 **With the next chapter, I am gonna try hard like for real, for the first time. I have some nice ideas which will end up being a long arc (I will upload more frequently). That long arc will have a lot of action, romance, drama and ACTION. Did I say action twice ? Yeah, cuz I mean it. I don't want to sound arrogant but it's true that if I say the story will get amazing. At least if I am able to implement my ideas well.**

 **Usually I wouldn't beg for reviews, but I would like to read some opinions only too willingly. (Also ideas, which you would like to have in a story of SAO but are too lazy to write, can be sent in a PM. I will of course mention you in those chapters.)**


	9. Closer and further afar at the same time

" _WHAT ?!"_ She slammed both of her hands on the wooden table, sending pieces of paper into the air. The person shrugged and fell silent instantly, before opening his mouth gradually and stuttering his next words.

"Y-You heard it correctly, sir-no.. Ma'am ! T-T-T-The whole scouting squad was annihilated!" The man who reported this couldn't stop the sweat rushing down his forehead as she watched the opposite person biting her lower lip while looking enraged at her hands on the desk.

"Again..." She murmured sub-consciously as her mimic distorted and revealed frustration. Realizing that the guild mate hadn't left yet, she coughed into her fist and gathered strength to sound sharp and cold.

"You may leave !" The soldier nodded respectfully and took his leave immediately. Only when she heard the great double doors shut, she relaxed her posture and let herself fall into the comfortable chair.

'That's bad, really bad...' She thought. Turning her seat around by 180 degrees, a view out of the vast window assaulted her eyes with sudden bright light. When the effect of blindness seemed to cease as her eyes adjusted to the light, masses of people could be seen, walking through alleys of shops and blacksmiths.

The guild leader room of Knights of the Blood, that's where she was. Not until long ago she was the one walking in here and reporting news, but since _then,_ she was the one on the other side. And recently the news grieved her a lot.

'Why now ?!' That was the most prominent thought crossing and plaguing her mind.

Floor 82, that was where they were. Since floor 75's boss there was no one that was really dangerous. One month appeared to be enough for everyone to level up sufficiently. But suddenly with this floor, the terrors of floor 75 seemed to return.

Every scout legion sent there never came back. Though there was no way to look at the Momentum of Life from there she knew that they had been 'logged out' of the game and were sent into the afterlife, if there was one.

The first scouts disappeared a week ago, and now another had. This time there were some frontliner mixed in too to assure their safety, but what was unfortunate, was that boss doors always closed and were locked until either the boss or the players died. And what was possible to claim was that the area was a non-teleport area. However more was unknown.

In these kind of situations, the people trusted and hoped for their leader to make the right decision more than ever. But that pressure had a negative effect on her health, rendering her sometimes sleepless during the nights in which she thought about future plans. Of course she hid everything from Kirito as she didn't want to trouble him who strangely seemed to be busy himself.

'Ah ...' A sound was leaked out of her throat and interrupted the never-ending trains of thoughts in her head.

'I need to call a meeting and will have to plan the next raid, hm ?!' She held back a heavy sigh as she had a notion of the sheer painstaking work which was to do. But there were too many deaths in those scouting groups, which she couldn't afford to keep up. She had to do something... _They_ had to something.

"But before the next raid…." She murmured lowly as she leaned back and closed her eyes. Weariness and fatigue made her remember something important which she had totally forgotten in the last days full of work.

"I want to enjoy a little freetime…"

* * *

Kirito...that name was known to everybody as the hero who had killed the god of this world. He had killed the tyrant who had captured ten thousand people and locked them away in a virtual world, far away from their families and friends out there in the _real_ world. But unfortunately that didn't end all misery and tragedy as promised. Since then everybody hoped for him to bring along another wonder and save them this time.

However what they didn't know was….- that their hero had fallen from his old state. A fallen dual-wielder plagued by various bad feelings and missing his second sword. That pretty much described him, however as he didn't want anyone to bother he just hid those and kept on. But at evenings like today it was very difficult not to think about the shards of jade-green metal lying next to him on the wide-stretching pitch of grass.

A cold breeze rushed over the land and made him pull the collar of my jacket nearer to me. Even if it wouldn't make any difference.

He watched the crystal-clear lower half of the sword which was named "Dark Repulsor". But now it was nothing else but scrap. Not even a blacksmith would have been able to repair that kind of damage. The kind of sacrifice he need to bring to defeat Heathcliff…

Dyed in diming orange light of the sun it lay there. No vividness or sign of activity rushed into the blade as he neared his hand to the grip. It would have flashed green like in the old days when it was still intact but unhappily that wasn't the case anymore.

"Kirito-kun ?!" A voice very well known to me registered in my ears. I turned my head around, only to be welcomed by a goddess. At least I thought she was one in the radiance of the sun.

Her shiny white battle equipment reflected the orange of the sun and left shimmer of light attracting my eyes. The glossy rapier at her waist was an unconfusable feature of _The Flash_. The smile on her beautiful face let me forget everything and mesmerized me for a split second.

"Hey" I replied smoothly. A beautiful smile floated on her face as she neared and finally let herself fall sluggishly next to me as if she was suddenly robbed all her energy.

"It's exhausting, isn't it ?" I asked almost immediately while my gazed wandered over her tender body. Hands were all shaky, most probably due continuous writing, and her hair was compared to her usual style very messy. She would need to get a comb from her inventory to recreate the original smoothness of her chestnut-brown hair, but she didn't seem to be in a state, or have the mood, to do so.

"Yeah, you know, the next boss is somehow really troubling us, exceeding our estimations and the boss strength's steady increasement, by far. He is more than double as strong as the last one. Even the last one was very nasty though." She started to explain and lay down on the soft carpet of grass, eyes closed. I averted my gaze back to the scenery, before lying down too with my arms crossed beneath my head.

"Sounds like trouble…"

"May I ask you, Kirito-kun ?!" Asuna's words reached me with surprise as I noticed a strange undertone in her voice.

"Yeah, of course." I responded, staring between two major clouds in the orange sky.

"What is your real name ?" A question which made me think longer than it should have.

 _-real ?! Right…._ I had forgotten that I wasn't only called Kirito my whole life. To be honest, I think I was used to _Kirito_ more than to my actual name. And what was really odd, was that I needed a lot of time, even Asuna threw a questioning glance towards me.

"Kirigaya Kazuto" I spoke the name of my other self. _Strange_ ….It didn't feel like I was mentioned, more like as if I said the name of someone totally unfamiliar. I wasn't sure what she was thinking so hard about, but she fell silent for around several minutes after that….

* * *

 _Kirigaya Kazuto,_ she repeated the name of her beloved one multiple times. It didn't take long until she found out herself the meaning of _Kirito_. _桐_ _(Kiri),_ was undoubtedly 'to cut with a sword'. It just appeared to be perfectly fitting his style. Adding a ヶ谷 ( _gaya_ ), which basically meant nothing else than valley, completed his family name.

Though she wasn't sure about this and how to interpret those two different words, she continued.

His first name, Kazuto, was build up with a 和 ( _Kazu_ ), meaning 'peace', and 人 ( _to_ ), which had no other meaning than 'person'. Now one could discuss the meaning of his name, however there was no doubt that the name fitted him all too well.

 _The person who brings peace, hands grabbing a sword protecting everything dear to him._ That's what she imagined. What _gaya_ was supposed to mean she could only have vague guesses but to ask him right away would have been too impolite.

"Neh, Kirito-kun", after realizing how long she had been thinking silently she said, using his in-game name, "tell me something about your real life."

 _It's too rude..._ a voice in her told said. However her curiosity overwhelmed her and she was kind of forced to ask as her mind was pestering her due the ignorance about her husband. A tiny bit of surprise was seen on the said boy's face, before a hard-thinking one followed.

"Actually, there isn't much to tell." A sheepish chuckle left his throat while he scratched his cheek.

"pleaaaaaaseeeee... ?!"

"Ehmm...okay. Where should I start… There aren't many things I do beside gaming….Ah, I have a motorcycle which I love to ride." Asuna nodded every time he seemed to trail off and she tried to absorb the information about her husband like a sponge.

"Well….what I did in the past was practicing Kendo."

"Perhaps that's the reason why you can wield your sword that extremely well." Asuna tried to cover a giggle with her hand.

"No, not really. Even my little sister would defeat me single-handedly in a Kendo match." He laughed out amusingly.

"You have a little sister,... wow. I wish I had one too !" As Asuna's eyes sparkled, a low, refusing sound was made by Kirito's frowning. Asuna noticed that strange response and tried to change the topic…

"And,...uhmm...how are your parents like ?" She decided to ask the next question which crossed her mind. But…

"-..."

If she could had foreseen _that_ , she would have never asked.

* * *

 **A/N: Like always,...I am sorry for being late again. I've reached a new low-point in my motivation to write. Story is planned already, but the passion of writing isn't anywhere to be found. So the next chapters will be (as I can tell for now) very short chapters like this one. I hope I find a new source of motivation soon ;)**

See you soon !


	10. Beast's little secret

*Chink*

*Chink*

The sound of a hammer striking on metal reverberated repeatedly and forced its way into her ears. A sound which she would have been annoyed of everywhere else than here. Gathering force into her grip she drew a perfect vertical line downwards onto the gleaming piece of metal.

*Chink*

"Yosh ! At this pace we can get it ready sooner than we thought !" A sigh full of exhaustion was followed by a few claps on her back by the other person.

"Really thank you !" The chestnut-haired girl, right next to her now, said with a huge smile.

The _thing_ in front of her took her two weeks to forge while every other weapon could been done in less than a single day. And still it was merely a vague form of the result.

"Maybe…." Lizbeth dragged her fatigued body over to the bench on the other side of the room and let her body fall abruptly on it.

Fortunately there was nothing like sweat in this game because otherwise she would have been totally covered by it by now. Not only the heavy hammer strikes, but the hot forge fire made it exhausting. But apparently that didn't make Asuna any trouble.

"I can imagine his face only to well" Asuna exclaimed as she happily stepped next to her and giggled.

"Yeah, but you know what bothers me the most ?!" Lizbeth asked suddenly out of nowhere.

It was a question which had always lingered in the back of her head. And since Asuna's birthday party, that curiosity became more prominent.

It was needless to say that the leader of the biggest guild in a game, with around 6000 to 7000 players, was very busy, however since she got this opportunity she decided to not let it go.

"Did you ever asked yourself how much Kirito knows about you ?" Asuna's face changed to hard-thinking for a second before changing back.

"Pretty much everything, my family, my house, my school...I may not recall it clearly but I think he doesn't know my family name though…" It didn't take her long to get Lizbeth's point. But before she could translate her thoughts into words, Lizbeth did it for her.

"Now, how much do _you_ know about him…" As she asked, Asuna's usual calm left her and she tried to revoke any knowledge she had about him. But there was nothing he had told her...Lizbeth could tell from her expression.

"You're right…"

"Go and see him, find everything out!" Lizbeth cried out, half out of cheering for her friend and half out of personal interest. 'It wouldn't harm me to have some teasing material ready' She thought holding back a huge smirk.

"Then see you later…" She noticed that Asuna, the biggest and most well known player, who was supposed to go on everything with serenity and keep calm in front of everybody else, hadn't any patience left in her and would have darted out the building if not for Klein who had just entered the room from the same door as Asuna intended to leave.

"Hey !" Asuna stopped immediately and looked up to the samurai's face with a penetrating glare, only a two steps distance between them.

"Klein, do you know anything about Kirito ?" The sudden question triggered an unusual reaction on Klein's face.

"No, nothing at all…" As soon as she heard the answer she left.

"What's up with her ?" Klein shrugged and averted his gaze to the anvil.

"You keep something hidden, don't you ?" If Lizbeth was skilled in something, then that something was reading other's mimics and gestures.

"Ehmm….well…" Klein let the truth out since he knew there was no escape. Lizbeth could be more stubborn than anyone else in certain situations.

"Let's just say, he isn't the kind of person you think he would be…" Klein, and perhaps Lizbeth, and perhaps even everyone else would have thought of Kirito being a guy with many achievements in real life as much as in-game, but that wasn't right. And on top of that his family life...nobody would have guessed that.

How he came to know about his past was when Kirito had came to the _Fuurinkazan_ headquarters to get a job done, a player's quest if you will. Since he had to wait for his team members to appear they had a little spare time which they used to get to know about each other's real life. Even though if that was strictly prohibited by many, to talk about one's real life that is, it was always a great topic to talk about if nothing else came to one's mind.

Let's say it was _not always_ a good topic to talk about, he learned that day.

"Hopefully Asuna doesn't mess it up because Kirito really wants some things to be unspoken."

"Like what ?!"

"You really thought I would tell you ?" Lizbeth pouted and glared at him at the same time, which he hadn't thought to be possible to be honest.

"Pleaaaaaase ?!" She insisted, suddenly dog's eyes having replaced the glare.

"Come closer" Lizbeth tried to gain height by standing on tiptoe. Klein made a circle with hands around his mouth and her ear. With the lowest and still clear voice he could muster he whispered into her ear.

"No"

* * *

"My parents, hm ?!" Kirito asked as if he never had the little space out right now.

"How are yours ?!" He brought the words over without any hint of his earlier reaction. Asuna didn't get it at all; she was really bad in interpreting situations like that. First she asked him about his parents, then he spaced out, and now he is his usual self.

"Mine are pretty good actually...though my mom is kind of annoying from time to time. But you know what? I sometimes wish I would have a little sister just like you do, Suguha, right ?" Asuna looked into the calming sky with bunches of cotton-like clouds floating around.

"Suguha isn't my sister…." A sudden low voice barely reached her ears. She averted her gaze to Kirito who was looking somewhere on the grass right in front of him. His bangs threw a big shadow on his face and made his expression hard to read.

"I may not have told you….but could you keep a secret ?" Asuna's interest piqued and an instant nod was naturally predictable. Kirito's face scrunched up as if in pain when he transmitted his next words.

"I am adopted…" Those three words seemed to have robbed all of his energy. His voice sounded weak again.

"Now it's out….." Without any doubt Asuna had totally no idea what to do in that moment.

' _What's with your actual parents ?'_ she would have loved to ask but that would have been too rude and she never could bring that upon him

"I am so sorry" Her shaky arms wrapped his unmoving upper body which were willing to accept the embrace.

"Please keep that for yourself...I don't want anyone to know it. Only you and Klein know it and it should stay this way." Asuna strengthened her grip as she hummed affirmatively.

"We could go back actually…" Asuna suggested upon seeing her partner like this.

"But I still want to learn much more about Asuna…" A response she didn't see coming made her blink several times before she could react.

"Are you really okay ?!" Asuna asked.

"Yeah, of course. What's the problem about having my wife know about my past ?"

"Now we really get to it! So what did you do else?" The vibe had changed greatly without her notice and she was really enjoying the stories Kirito told her, like for example that one time he was having a Kendo match against Suguha and got literally wrecked and demolished. And the stories about the punishments he got from his gramps for not taking Kendo serious enough.

The day ended faster than she realized.

 _Next raid countdown: 5 days_

* * *

.

.

.

" _That's what I call useful information…" A cloaked figure chuckled mischievously as he/she received the information through the pet's, a rat's, ears._

" _How much can I make with that? I think I will set up a new record."_

 _With a satisfied chuckle the person teleported out of the area._

* * *

"Yo, mister Kirito, may I add you to my friends list please?"

"I want too!"

"Please !"

Almost every time he was walking through the beautiful cities of the latest floor, strangers would still bother him with those stupid and needless pleas.

"Sorry guys, my friends list is already full…" And he would still tell them the same lie over and over again. 125 was the maximum amount of people you could be befriended with, but his list was merely a few dozen people long.

Leaving people high and dry for the umpteenth time, he finally arrived at the exit of the city. The city was surrounded by a big concrete wall with around 5 meters in height. Four gates served evenly as the only entries and exits into and out of the city.

The southern gate towered high above head, reminding him of the endless possibilities in a virtual world as he gazed at the decorated concrete. The arched gateway was always open, but still no monsters could invade the boundaries of the city.

Stepping towards the huge gap, he checked if he had everything set for the next hours of non-stop farming.

He really needed to go farming. And to do it solo was still his favourite way of doing so. Even Asuna couldn't break his habit.

As soon as the sole of his leather boots touched the less firm ground of dirt, he shifted his hand back to his scabbard and drew his sword out of its sheath with a clear screech of metal.

'Isn't soon Christmas ?' Kirito's straight face formed into a grinning one.

'I already have a great idea !' With those thoughts he stepped onward to the lands of gorilla-like gladiators.

There, in the vast territories of different sorts of monsters in the deep forests, the nearest to the city was the easiest. However he went straight to the last territories, thinking that the walk would be more worthwhile.

A field boss entered his view when he reached the center of the hexagonal territory of the gorilla-humans with frightening strength and surprising agility. After having fought his way through the underlings it was meant to happen.

" _The Beast Gorilla"_

It was neither looking like a real beast nor was it a complete gorilla. It was more like an orc with human features and fur covering his whole body.

With his current equipment and stats, the boss could be done in under thirty minutes by himself. But he missed a sword and he naturally knew that that would make the fighting a lot riskier.

But without the precious experience points of the field boss, he could never live up to the name he was given by his parents and the expectations of his fellow comrades in this game Sword Art Online. His real-life name perfectly described him, at least his efforts.….

[The-...]

Before another thought could come up, the bulky figure a few tenths of meter in front of him huffed loudly through its pitch-black nostrils, shooting out steam as if it was a machine.

Kirito crouched lower into his battle stance, and waited for the monster to dive in first.

Just as he expected, the orc….-which was supposed to be a gorilla, charged in at a frightening pace, shaking the ground with every step. There was next to no difference between that monster and a huge rock. Four meters in height and two meters broad, with muscles like stone. He would have surely run away if he had seen this image of such a monster speeding towards him, if not for the important experience points.

The massive creature covered the distance of about thirty meters faster than he had ever imagined. One moment he saw the monster running at him far away, in the next that beast stood in front of him and lunged out his vast fist.

If not for the sudden rush of adrenaline in his body, he would have been crushed at the same spot he was a split second ago, he noticed whilst jumping back. The hard dirt ground displayed heavy cracks on its surface and dirt got spalled into the air.

With the most of his weight in his back in the air, Kirito used the momentum to do a backflip and get to his feet, to be able to rush in immediately. As soon as his feet connected with the ground and he shot forward at the same moment, he realized….

-...that another strike was dashing towards him. He tried to drag his sword in its trajectory in time, but there was none.

Without any trace of pain beside the stinging of the dirt, which was apparently too less to get suppress by the System, with a feeling of getting rammed by a truck, his body was sent at least twenty meters away. Only through endless the HP-devouring friction he came to a halt.

A glimpse to the upper left of his vision made him whip out a health potion, before he stood up and brushed the dust off his coat and pants.

The coat was all torn and ripped, especially the back. He would have to bring it to a Alicia, the same woman from whom he bought his outfits.

The field boss wasn't any dangerous any more as long as it hadn't a secret move hidden. Only the speed had surprised him, and that by far. And on top of that, there was a similar field boss at floor 64, it made him even think for a moment that Kayaba was uncreative.

Two health bars to deplete, he had two bars too with all the potions in total.

A kick, a dash, a horizontal strike, everything in an instant, not even the monster could react to his sudden movements. The monster howled in agony as the sword cut deeply into its flesh and left a red line adorning its black fur.

It was basically that, dodging the beast's swift attacks and the counter-attack. That didn't mean he could go on it easy. Kirito was able to dodge almost every attack of his opponent with his high agility stats, but even Heathcliff would have had difficulties blocking against this beast's attacks. In other words Kirito was lucky with this kind of opponent.

When he could tell by the red HP bar of the Gorilla that it was soon done, he activated his last skill to wrap it up. Waiting for the punch of the beast, he dodged it by jumping high above. Probably due his heightened senses he could see everything more clearly, the flexed arms trying to desperately reach the afterimage of him, and the monster's eyes rolling towards his real position.

Kirito activated _Wind Dance_ by shifting his sword into his backhand, using his free left hand in front of his chest with the palms showing to the outside to balance his body in air, and giving his body a slight rotation. From there on, the invisible helping hands of the system took over and fulfilled his skill.

His sword flashed ocean blue, drawing the wake of his sword. And then he descended, rotating around his own axe like a windmill while descending upon his opponent. His vision got blurred and distorted, and sense of orientation totally screwed.

He felt the force against his blade which was by far too less to stop it, and afterwards he finally touched the ground on one foot and one knee, the monster bursting off into millions of polygons shimmering like glass shards dyed in orange under the dimming sun.

It took him long to regain his usual firm vision and sense.

A smile floated on his face when he read 'Congratulation' message and the following windows.

"Huh ?!" Odd….really odd...The monster wasn't named The _Beast_ Gorilla without a good reason.

He opened the window to the new _thing_ he got. A skill... _'Don't tell me it is what I think it is...'_

 _Beast's Rage….._

That smile of his left him when he read the description of it and he instantly set himself a clear rule which should never be broken.

 _I won't use it …...otherwise Asuna will kill me….._ Gulping away scary thoughts he set foot on the path he used to get here.

 _That didn't mean that he wouldn't try it out._

* * *

I appreciate EVERY review of yours and each one motivates me a lot. Thanks guys ! The next chapter may come a lot earlier than usual as I have nothing to do and THE arc is about to start with Kirito's new thingie and his little secret which apparently got heard by another person.

And don't you find it odd how perfect Asuna's and Kirito's relationship was up until now ? I may not change it that greatly, since they are my fav couple, but I will add a little amount of drama. Enjoy it then ^^

[If you have any ideas or tips please send them. I will mention anyone who sends me a nice idea for the story, if it's good ofc. Remember: It's an author-reader story.]


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